84 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



As Stated above, the affinities of this plant are in doubt and it is a 

 question whether or not such undoubted abnormal forms are worth 

 consideration. It might be pointed out, however, that Fomes 

 c o n n a t u s has the same type of trama with smaller heavy 

 walled hyphae as in this plant, as has also the plant heretofore 

 referred by the writer to Polyporus rigidus Lev. A 

 technical description is omitted. 



Poria laetifica (Peck) Sacc. 



Plate 7, figures 4, 6; plate 8, figures 1-2 



Syll. Fung. 6: 300. 1888. 

 Polyporus (Physisporus) laetificus Peck, 38th Rep't 

 N. Y. State Mus., p. 91. 1885. 



Original description. Effused, thin, tender, not readily separ- 

 able from the matrix, bright orange with a subtomentose yellowish 

 margin ; tubes short, often oblique, minute, subrotund, the dissepi- 

 ments thick, obtuse. 



Decaying wood. South Ballston. Aug. 



The fungus forms patches 2 or 3 in. long, following the inequali- 

 ties of the surface. In the dried state the pores appear like little 

 ruptured vesicles as in P . v e s i c u 1 o s u s B. & C. The species 

 appears to approach P . f u 1 g e n s , Rost. ; which has the 

 margin white fibrillose and the pores acute. 



Notes. From the standpoint of the type collection this is one of 

 the most unsatisfactory of Peck's species of Poria. Not only is the 

 type material scanty but it is also sterile. It is therefore almost 

 impossible to match collections with the type with absolute certainty. 

 Consequently others may not agree with the writer in the applica- 

 tion of Peck's name. But the writer has in his herbarium three col- 

 lections from Pennsylvania that appear to agree in all respects with 

 the type fragments. Notes were made on these in the fresh con- 

 dition and these notes agree with Peck's brief description. The 

 dried plants have a peculiar appearance to the hymenium and that 

 also is found on my specimens. Consequently I have taken my 

 specimens as representative of the species. Specimens have been 

 deposited in the state herbarium at Albany and so are available for 

 comparison with the types. These specimens are fertile as noted 

 below. But in order to differentiate sharply between the type 

 collection and my own specimens the following notes are based on 



