122 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



brick-red to flesh color, glabrous. Flesh rufescent, thick 

 except at margin. Gills adnate, moderately broad, sub- 

 ventricose close, thin, a few forked at times or inter- 

 spaces venose, becoming salmon color. Stem coriaceous- 

 fleshy, confluent Avith pileus, 2-3 cm. long, 5-6 mm. thick, 

 equal, somewhat eccentric, curved, fibrillose, fibrous- 

 stuffed, reddish within and ^vithout. Spores globose, 

 echinulate, whitish, flesh color in mass. On prostrate 

 maple trunk, cut timber, etc. August-September. Eare." 



This rare and interesting plant has been reported from 

 Michigan, Ohio, Kansas and Minnesota. The specimen 

 shown in figures 1 and 2 was collected in the University 

 Woods near Urbana, Illinois, in September, 1921, and is, 

 I believe, the first collection reported from Illinois. The 

 plant was flesh colored throughout and agreed closely 

 with Kauffman's description. 



This species is not closely related to other species of 

 Pleurotus. It differs from all of them in having echinu- 

 late spores and a gelatinous reticulated cuticle on the 

 surface of the pileus. Moreover, Pleurotus is a white 

 spored genus and our plant has flesh-colored spores, but, 

 of course, that is true also of Pleurotus sapidus. Spore 

 color does not seem to be always a dependable generic 

 or even specific character. The genus Lepiota, for in- 

 stance, is another white spored genus which has members 

 that are not always white spored. The spores of L. 

 naucina are sometimes white and sometimes flesh-color, 

 while L. Morgani, which is usually classified with the 

 Lepiotas, though perhaps it ought not to be, has green 

 spores which become ochre color after exposure to light 

 but which are never white. The other characters men- 

 tioned, however, do seem to separate Pleurotus subpal- 

 matus from the other species of the genus, and Kauff- 

 man suggests that it is closely related to Heliomyces and 

 perhaps should be placed in that genus. 



SECOTIUM AGARICOIDES. (FiG. 3) 



I have collected Secotium agaricoides several times in 

 Champaign and Vermilion Counties, Illinois, and I have 

 no doubt that many others have collected it in various 



