REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST. 93 
species gives the pores as medium size and entire, and makes no mention 
of any odor, in consequence of which we have thought our plant distinct. 
It is, however, extremely variable. 
Var. tenuis is very thin, scarcely a line thick, with short pores and 
the surface nearly even. "Tt occurs on the smooth decorticated trunks 
of hemlock. 
Var. tuberculosus has the surface more or less roughened by unequal 
prominent tubercles, which are either scattered or clustered. They 
appear to be a monstrous development of the mycelium on the surface 
of the pores. 
Var. stalactiticus incrusts mosses and therefore has the surface very 
uneyen with numerous and unequal porous protuberances. It most 
often occurs on prostrate mossy trunks of birches. 
Var. vesiculosus (P. vesiculosus, B, & C.) has shallow scattered pores 
as if formed from ruptured vesicles. 
Specimens of this Polyporus, unless dried under pressure, shrink and 
roll up in unmanageable shapes. They often contain considerable 
moisture when collected, and if put in press in this condition they are 
liable to become brown or blackish in drying. Specimens collected in 
a dry time or in dry situations retain their characters best. ‘The thinner 
forms, if partly dried before they are put in press, sometimes retain their 
color and characters well. When growing on bark the patches are some- 
times interrupted and irregular, in which case the margin is broader than 
usual and well defined. 
Merulius (Resupinati) subaurantiacus, n. sp. 
Effused, membranous, tender, very soft, separable from the matrix, 
pale orange color, the subiculum soft, silky-tomentose, whitish and 
pale orange ; hymenium gyrose-plicate and dentate, becoming paler 
with age ; spores broadly elliptical, .oo025 in. long, .ooo2 broad. 
Soft decayed wood of hemlock. Osceola. Aug. 
The species is distinguished by its soft tomentose texture and its 
orange hues.- It is closely related to M@. awreus but is at once distinct 
by its orange, not golden, color. The subiculum is composed of a 
stratum of whitish filaments next the matrix and another of orange 
color next the hymenium. Hence the margin in young plants is gener- 
ally whitish. In mature ones the whole becomes orange colored. Not- 
withstanding the tender substance the membrane is separable from the 
‘matrix and pieces three or four inches in extent are thus obtainable. 
Merulius fugax, /’7.. 
Soft decayed wood of deciduous trees. Osceola. Aug. 
This has the tender, soft and delicate texture of the preceding species, 
but it is at first of a pure white color. Soon the hymenium assumes a 
creamy or yellowish hue and the folds appear, but there is often a wide 
margin destitute of them. In drying, the folds mostly collapse and dis- 
appear and the hymenium often becomes tinged with incarnate or flesh 
color. The wood on which it usually grows is so much decayed that it 
easily crumbles to pieces. Nevertheless the plant is separable from its 
matrix. 
The spores are oblong, .0003 in. long, .ocoo1 broad. 
