342 Banker: A new fungus of the swamp cedar 



somewhat lobed, seal-brown extending around quite to the hy- 

 menial side ; substance thin, 1-2 mm,, of two layers, the upper 

 harder, somewhat brittle, dark brown, the lower softer, light brown ; 

 hyphae of upper portion subrigid, thick-walled, dark-colored, more 

 or less interwoven, having numerous globular guttulate bodies 

 massed among the hyphae, single hypha 3-4/^ wide ; hyphae of 

 lower portion thin-walled, subhyaline, more or less parallel, with- 



^ 



out globular bodies, but with numerous granules scattered among 

 them, single hypha 3-4/^ wide; hymenium colliculose, subfarina- 

 ceous under a lens, golden yellow when fresh, fading in drying to 

 a light buff or pale cream-colored ; teeth various, coarse, sub- 

 terete to difiform, confluent, papilloid to elongate, usually obtuse, 

 tips sometimes brownish, 1-5 mm, long, 0.5-1 mm. wide, irreg- 

 ularly distributed ; spores hyaline, broadly elliptical to subglobose, 

 7-7^2 fJL by 5.5-6.5// wide ; taste mild, slightly bitter, suggesting 

 old hickory nuts ; odor slight, resembling the substratum. [Plate 

 24.] 



On living CJiamaecyparis thyoides (L.) B.S.P. at Forked River, 

 Ocean County, New Jersey, W.H. Ballon^ April 6, 1908. Type 

 specimen in the writer's herbarium. 



The plant belongs to the family Hydnaceae, which pos- 

 sesses but few parasitic forms. The only other species positively 

 known to be strictly parasitic is Echinodontium tinctoruim Ell. & 

 Ev., which also attacks species of the Pinaceae on the Pacific 

 coast. The two fungi possess some strikingly similar character- 

 istics, but it is doubtful if they are congeneric. Both approach 

 the tough woody Polyporaceae more closely than any other of the 

 Hydnaceae and would be readily mistaken for members of that 

 family on casual observation. The present plant suggests espe- 

 cially the genus Coriobis and except for Hydnaceous hymenial 

 surface would appear to have closer affinities with this genus than 

 with any of those now included in the Hydnaceae, This state- 

 ment, however, may be made of two or three other species here- 

 tofore referred to the genus Steccherinum. It seems best, therefore, 

 to refer this new species for the present to this latter genus. 



There has long been a doubt in the writer's mind whether the 

 families of the Agaricales, especially the Thelephoraceae, Hydna- 

 ceae, and Polyporaceae, are not distinguished by a very artificial 



