100 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



surface is now pinkish buff to pinkish cinnamon in color. At first 

 the plant has a rather thick margin that is sterile for a width of 3 

 to 4 mm, but toward maturity this becomes narrower and in the 

 largest specimen is only i to 2 mm wide. This margin is marked 

 with scattered small, subrounded, depressed spots that vary in size 

 from one-half of a millimeter to a millimeter in diameter. These 

 spots are not conspicuous but are quite evident under a lens. 

 According to Peck, they represent areas previously occupied by 

 small drops of moisture. This type of spotting is not unknown in 

 other fungi and the exudation of drops of moisture has been char- 

 acterized as a " weeping " habit. Extended observations are neces- 

 sary before we can state whether or not this " weeping " is a char- 

 acter of specific importance. The margin of the plant is somewhat 

 uneven but not fimbriate. Mature specimens have a total thickness 

 that varies up to 2 mm. The subiculum is quite thin, often less than 

 one-half of a millimeter. The tubes are often very oblique and 

 even almost vertical where the specimens apparently grew on the 

 vertical side of the substratum. In such cases the tubes may be as 

 much as 6 mm in length, but under more normal conditions of 

 growth they do not exceed i to 2 mm. The hymenial surface in 

 specimens from more vertical positions is thrown into undulations 

 as seen in the illustration (plate 14, figure i). Such examination 

 as it is possible to make of the type specimens indicates that this is 

 hardly to be considered as an effort on the part of the fungus to 

 form a pileus, but that the uneven surface of the substratum is 

 mostly responsible for it. The mouths of the tubes are subrounded, 

 unequal, and in vertical positions decidedly oblique. They average 

 about 3 to 3^ to a millimeter. The dissepiments are rather thick 

 and on the moui.hs of the tubes there is a fine pubescence in younger 

 specimens, but the more mature ones are glabrous. The only 

 lacerations are those due to the vertical growth of some specimens. 

 There is no sheen or silkiness to the hymenium. 



The spores of the species are ellipsoidal and often with a minute 

 apiculus at one end. This apiculus when present is probably 

 always more or less excentric in position, though certain view of 

 the spores present it in a nearly central position. Some spores tend 

 toward oblong-ellipsoidal in shape. They are colorless, srnooth- 

 walled, and measure 4 to 5 ju, in length and 2.5 to 3.5 /x in breadth 

 (plate 14, figure 5). Basidia are rarely seen in free-hand sections 

 of the plant. There are no cystidia (plate 14, figure 2). At times 

 irrc^u^ar scattered crystals appear upon or in the hymenium. The 



