2 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. VII. 



examination suggests that the substance is either a dead fungus of the 

 larger Polyporus type, or a mass of wood destroyed by a fungus. 



It is whitish cream in colour, very friable, breaking into long, thin 

 strands, which seem to be held together by fragments of dead matter. 

 To the touch, it has a curious saponaceous feel, but as Dr. Fletcher 

 remarked, does not produce any appreciable lather when rubbed up 

 with water. If cut dry with a razor, the sections peel off like shavings, 

 and even in very small pieces they are exceedingly impervious to cold 

 water, — they will float on the surface for weeks. Hot water or alcohol, 

 however, wets them readily. 



If a small portion of the " soap" be teased out, it is found to consist 

 of a meshwork of hyphae, covered over with, and more or less bound 

 together by irregular fragments of very varying size. With iodine, or 

 Schultz's solution, the hyphae stain a faint yellow, the fragments a 

 deeper yellow. Iodine and sulphuric acid at first give a deep yellow 

 colour, but then the sections gradually dissolve up. Phloroglucin or 

 aniline chloride and hydrochloric acid give no trace of colour. The 

 hyphse stain readily with ha^matoxylin, Congo-red, carbol, fuchsin, 

 aniline blue, etc., either in alcoholic solutions or in water solutions, if 

 the sections have been previously treated with alcohol. 



After soaking in alcohol, thin layers of the substance become semi- 

 transparent, and show very clearly longitudinal strands, which in section 

 show irregularly arranged circles, held together by darker portions of 

 the material. Distributed over the " soap " occur deep brown areas, 

 which, to the naked eye, appear like a stain. This colouration is very 

 intense in some places, whilst in others it is scarcely noticeable. The 

 deeper brown areas seem to mark successive layers in a direction at 

 right angles to the longitudinal strands ; there is, however, no regularity 

 in the thickness of the layers, and here and there the dark areas cross 

 each other. When examined microscopically, besides these longitudinal 

 strands above referred to, the most striking character is the presence of 

 a double set of hyphse lying one above the other. Thus, as shown in 

 Fig. 2, the substance is seen to consist of interwoven hyphae, running in 

 alternating strands longitudinally and transversely, with a more densely 

 matted line separating these strands. The hyphae arranged thus are 

 colourless, very rarely branched, regular, somewhat thick walled and 

 show but very few transverse divisions. Clamp connections occur here 

 and there. (Fig. 12). Overlying these and very irregularly distributed 

 are numerous dark brown hyphae, showing frequent swellings and 

 branchings and occasional transverse septa. (Figs. 5 and ii). To their 



