MYCOLOGICAL BULLETIN 



No. 32 



-ciRARY 

 EW YORK 

 •vOTANICAL 

 r,A»nEN. 



A Po-ly'-po-rus Ni'MBF.R. — Tliough the fungi belonging to the Pol-y'- 



U\ A. KcUcnnan. Ph. D., Ohio State Unnrrsify 



Columbus, Oliio, April 15, 1905 



po-ra'-cc-ae, or Pore-fimgi, are not so important to the mycophagist as 

 some other groups they are just as interesting to the student and lover of 

 Nature. When very young some of the species are edible and used to 

 a considerable extent. They soon become tough or hard and leathery, 

 most of the conspicuous forms being woody in consistency. Some of 

 the common forms will be shown in this and succeeding Numbers of the 



P)rLLETTN. 



Cl.^ssification. — T hese fungi are near relatives of the Ag'arics or 

 the Gill-fungi, inasmuch as the spores are borne on enlarged cells, called 

 ha-sid' -i-a. Each ba-sid'-i-um bears at its ape.K a few (commonly two 

 or four) spores at the tips of little stalks. The name of this slender stem 

 or stalk is, in botanical language, stcr-ig'-ma ; the plural is ster-ig'-ma-ta. 

 All fungi that produce ba-sid' -i-a and basidiospores constitute the group 

 of Ba-si(l-i-o-)ny-cc'-fcs. Again, those fungi that bear the spores within 

 a cell, whicli is called an us' -cus. form the group of As-co-»iy-ce'-tcs. 

 Ihe common and conspicuous Mushrooms are members of these groups 

 and are spoken of sometimes as the true fungi, or expressed in technical 

 language, Eu-my-cc'-tcs. The Grape Mildew, the Black Mould or Mucor, 

 etc., are quite different in some of their characters, particularly in their 

 mode of spore production ; in fact they are in this respect, like some 

 Algae and hence have been called algal-fungi. For this group the botan- 

 ical name, which has this signification, is Phy-co-my-cc'-tcs. At the risk 

 of offending the gentle reader with a prolix classification, it may be said 

 that these groups of plants, /. c. the Fungi, may be set opposite the 

 AT -gae (the latter plants being simple in structure like the fungi, but 

 unlike them in having chlo'-ro-phyll. or "leaf-green") — the two groups 

 constituting what the botanists call Thal'-lus plants or Thal'-lo-phytcs. 



]'"iG. 101, Po-ly'-po-rits .■\R-Cf-i..\-Ri-FoR'-MiS. Tliis polvporc was recently de- 

 scril)e«l as a new specirs by William .\. Munill, in tlie October Number of Torreya 

 (10114). It was collected at Unaka Sprines, Kast Tennessee. Tbe ui>pcr side is shown 

 in l-"ifi; 1, ilie under side in I'ig. 'i, magnified :2^i times. .\ small jiortion of the upper 

 surface is shown at 3, and a small portion of the lower surface is shown at 4, both 

 masnirtcl S timi s. Prt>fcssor Murrill has kindly loaned us the electro for reproducing 

 the figure of this interesting species. 



University Bulletin, Series 9. No. 1 8. Entered as Second Class Matter. Post-office at Columbus. Ohio 



