di 
334 MurRILL: POLYPORACEAE OF NORTH AMERICA 
last only G. cristata is congeneric with the type, the others belong- 
ing to Polyporus and Ganoderma. In Karsten’s arrangement of 
the group, P. frondosus with P. confluens and P. sulfureus form the 
basis of a new genus, Polypilus, Gray’s genus Grifola not being 
considered. So, again, Quélet establishes his genus C/adomeris on 
P. umbellatus and sixteen other species, ignoring the work of both 
Karsten and Gray. 
The plants of the genus Grifo/a are large and striking in appear- 
ance and sometimes attractive in coloring. They are intricately 
branched or irregularly lobed, fleshy or fleshy-tough in substance, 
with white context and spores and large, irregular tubes, which 
become friable or laciniate with age. They are usually found on 
or near dead wood in some form, either attached to buried sticks 
or roots or growing close to the base of a tree trunk. This latter 
habitat is a favorite one for at least four members of the genus, 
and the tree is usually an oak. 
The distribution of members of this genus is quite general. 
Two of our species occur also in the Eastern hemisphere and two 
others are represented there by nearly related plants. G. froudosa 
may be said to be abundant, G. poripes and G. Berkeleyi are fairly 
well known and the remaining three are rare, G. ramosissima being 
more common, however, in Europe than in America. 
Owing to the difficulty of handling such large forms and the 
changes which they undergo in drying, many mistakes are current 
concerning these’ plants. It is not easy to gain a just conception 
of an entire plant from one of its minute divisions, and in this, as 
well as in other groups, form and habit of growth count for much. 
If some of the existing errors have been eradicated by these studies, 
there is yet much to learn with regard to known species and more 
concerning those whose standing is still in doubt. 
Synopsis of the North American species 
1. Hymenium ochraceous, becoming cate? icspie with age, plants peseate irregularly 
confluent, olivaceous to greenish-yellow. G. port, 
Hymenium at first fuliginous, TE pe 2. é. Sumstinel. 
Hymenium white or pallid from the first a 
2. Surface of pileus gray or abil Pid to coffee-colored, stipe intricately branched, 
pileoli very numerous and s 
Surface of pileus pallid or seco stipe not intricately branched, lobes usually few 
in number and comparatively large. - 
