1 ™ (VOL - 6 



170 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



merulius I fail to find record that collections referable to this 

 genus or its single species have been made elsewhere in this 

 rather long interval of active mycological exploration. It is 

 therefore remarkable that the presumably tropical genus 

 Protomerulius should have so noteworthy a species as P. Farlowii 

 in northern New Hampshire at a rather high altitude. 



The color of the specimens of P. Farlowii is noted as purple 

 when in vegetative condition and suggestive in aspect of a species 

 of Tulasnella, but this color was soon lost in drying and the 

 specimens are now pale olive-gray of Ridgway. The fructifica- 

 tions occur on the surface of decayed coniferous wood, on the 

 rough surface of which a slender foliaceous hepatic is present also. 



Vertical sections through the fructification and substratum 

 show the fructification to be a continuous compact membrane 

 10-15 m thick; this membrane is composed of longitudinally 

 arranged, thin-walled, hyaline hyphae crowded closely together. 

 Branches from the hyphae of this membrane curve outward here 

 and there and terminate in clusters of basidia. The basidia are 

 somewhat interruptedly arranged in the hymenium rather than 

 densely. At intervals of about 40 m hyphae grow outward from 

 the membrane to form the tramal tissue of the folds or dissepi- 

 ments. These folds are about 30 ju high and 20 n thick and cov- 

 ered by the hymenium. The membranous layer of the fructi- 

 fication is elevated about 40 ft above the surface of the wood and 

 supported by groups of hyphae which arise from the substratum. 

 These details are shown in the accompanying text-figures. 



The formal description of this species is as follows : — 



Protomerulius Farlowii Burt, n. sp. 



Type: in Farlow Herb, and Mo. Bot. Gard. Herb. 



Fructifications resupinate, effused, gelatinous, membranaceous, 

 very thin and tender, separable with care when moist, "purple" 

 when fresh, becoming pale olive-gray upon drying, pruinose to 

 the naked eye, but showing under the microscope an im- 

 perfectly porose surface with thin, irregular folds and dissepi- 

 ments more or less lacerate, the edges thin; pores angular- 

 sinuose, about 40 n in diameter or 25 to a mm. ; in structure 

 20-30 n thick, with a compact subhymenial layer 10-15 m thick. 



