12 NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



three wide. When fresh they were of a rich salmon color 

 which is still noticeable, though now obscured by darker 

 tints. The pores are quite even, medium sized, thin walled and 

 inclined to be oblique. First reported from charred surfaces, 

 and, strange to say, our specimens are from a similar habitat! 



3. PoRiA BARB.EFORMis Berkeley and Cooke. 



Fungus wholly resupinate. the margin thin, white; the 

 hymenium, fulvous; the pores small elongate with thin dissepi- 

 ments. 



Reported first, it seems, from Alabama on stems of the 

 grape, but doubtless on manv other sorts of wood and bark. 

 Dry specimens show the whole fungus fulvous, the margin 

 paler and distinctly hirsute, barbate, whence, doubtless, the 

 specific name. The last mentioned character is especially 

 noticeable in smaller colonies. Pores by no means the small- 

 est, irregular and uneven. 



4. PoRL\ VAPORARIA FricS. 



Effused, innate, the white fiocculent mycelium creeping in 

 the wood; pores large, angulate, whitish-pallid, crowded in a 

 firm, persistent stratum. 



World-wide in distribution, this is the tvpe of the genus and 

 the commonest of the species. Its habitat, rotting wood of 

 many sorts, in lumber piles, and even on heaps of rotting 

 leaves. According to Hartig, the great student of forestry, 

 timber and its diseases, the present species is very destructive 

 of fir and pine trees, invading them not through wounded 

 surfaces only, but even assailing the roots and rootlets in the 

 ground and spreading thence to all parts of the stem to its 

 ultimate entire destruction. The effect of the action of the 

 parasite on the wood of the tree is like that produced by 

 " Dry rot" on seasoned timber, the wood is presently reduced 

 to powder. Less noticed here, owing to the almost universal 

 and lamentable ignorance of the American people on all sub- 

 jects pertaining to forestry. 



Herbarium specimens are pale brown in color, the placentae 

 of varying length, an inch (2 cm) or more in width. N. A. F.9. 



