92 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



On chestnut wood. Probably on wood of other kinds of 

 deciduous trees. 



Type locah'ty : Selkirk, N. Y. C. H. Peck. Also at Croghan, 

 Bolton and Savannah, N. Y. C. H. Peck. Not otherwise known 

 to the writer. 



Poria mutans var. tenuis Peck 



Plate 10, figure s; plate ii, figures 1-4 



43d Rcp't N. Y. State Mus., p. 39. 1890. 



Original description. Very thin, tender, the margin often wide 

 and downy. Bark and wood of spruce, Picea nigra. Sevev. 

 July. 



The species appears to differ from P. cruentata Mont, in 

 having the pores and subiculum of one uniform yellowish or sub- 

 ochraceous color, which changes where bruised or in drying to a 

 dull red or subincarnate hue. 



Notes. This, originally described as a variety of the former 

 species (Poria m u t a n s), should in all probability be regarded 

 as distinct for reasons brought out in the following discussion. 

 The writer hesitates to give it specific rank at present, however, 

 as it is not certain that the spores have been found. The name 

 is preoccupied by P . tenuis Schw. and P . tenuis Karst. 

 Consequently if this plant be raised to specific rank it must have 

 a new name. 



Apparently the type collection well represents the species in 

 external form and appearance. The largest specimen is scattered 

 over a piece of wood 12 cm long and 5 cm broad (plate 10, figure 

 5). The color of the fructification in young specimens is 'now 

 onion-skin pink or vinaceous cinnamon, and in older specimens 

 near burned utnber or carob brown but with somewhat more red 

 than in those colors. The plant evidently develops by forming an 

 extensive subiculum on which the tubes are later produced. Conse- 

 quently the hymenium-producing po'rtion is usually surrounded by 

 a broad sterile margin, at present vinaceous cinnamon in color. 

 Perhaps if collected later in the season this might largely have dis- 

 appeared. This margin is finely and compactly tomentose, and 

 may be as much as a centimeter broad. It is rather thin and not 

 at all fimbriate. The thickness of the hymenium-producing portion 

 is not more than one-half of a millimeter and consists of very short 

 tubes seated on a very thin but quite evident subiculum. The 

 mouths of the tubes are decidedly angular in outline and average 



