196 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN INSTITUTE _ [VOL. XII 
Zellner’s equally dogmatic statement that resins are taken up direct 
by fungi from the substratum, transported to another region and there 
laid down in somewhat altered and characteristic form. Resins have 
not been shown to be food for fungi, there is no evidence relative to 
the destruction or removal of resins by fungi from a substratum, and 
on the view that they are waste products it would seem very unlikely 
that the vegetative hyphae of this particular fungus should have acquired 
the utterly useless habit of absorbing huge quantities of substances 
merely to be transported to the fruiting body and there dumped in their 
entirety. 
CULTURES: 
Cultures were made both from fruiting bodies and from the mycelial 
sheets in decayed wood from materials collected in widely separated 
regions, and in every case the results obtained were identical. The 
fungus grows readily, though slowly, on potato agar, producing a dense, 
though not copious, light-coloured mycelium, from which renewal was 
found to be impossible after a lapse of eight months. The mycelium on 
the medium, at first white, later becomes slightly yellowed. The threads 
are similar to those found in the natural substratum—they are extremely 
fine, not more than 2.7 thick, free from clamp connections, and branched, 
the branches coming off at right angles. Chlamydospores are borne 
terminally and singly on the branches (Fig. 17) in great abundance. 
They are rather irregular in shape, as is true of such spores, varying 
from spherical to fusiform, the latter abruptly pointed at the apex and 
truncate at the base. They are even more variable in size, as the measure- 
ments of five spores taken at random show: (1) 8.16 6.12, (2) 5.44 
5-44, (3) 7-58X5.4, (4) 9.52 5.44, (5) 10X9.5; that is, they measure 
from 5.4-10u X5.4-9.5u. They are hyaline and their contents are charac- 
terized by fine granules or oil globules. 
A comparison with cultures of Polyporus sulphureus* will show at 
once striking differences. The mycelium of this fungus grows rather 
profusely on potato agar, producing a fluffy, distinctly yellowish growth. 
The threads of the mycelium are stout, up to 6y, and branch frequently, 
the branches coming off commonly at an acute angle, and markedly 
finer than the trunks. There is a prolific formation of chlamydospores, 
in young cultures terminally, but later in any part of the hyphae (Figs. 
15 and 16). They are extremely variable in size and in shape, especi- 
ally in the case of the intercalary spores. The terminal spores are 
*For cultures of Polyporus sulphureus, 1 am indebted to Miss J. McFarlane, M.A., 
Demonstrator in Botany in the University of Toronto. 
