LENTINUS 537 



whitish-grey, decurrent, few, very distant, when properly developed 

 thin, rather broad, edge acute, flaccid. Spores white, "elliptical, 

 irregular, 8-12 x 4-6 /u," Berk. On bare gravelly soil, and in peat 

 mosses. Jan. Very rare. 



Pileus coriaceous, or woody, pliant; gills firm, often toothed. 



Lentinus Fr. 



(Lentus, pliant, or tough.) 



Pileus coriaceous, pliant, more or less irregular, stipitate, or sessile. 

 Stem when present, central, excentric, or lateral, confluent with the 

 pileus. Gills tough, adnate, or decurrent, often toothed at the edge. 

 Spores white, elliptical, pip-shaped, oblong cylindrical, or globose; 

 smooth, or echinulate, continuous. Cystidia present, or absent. 

 Growing on wood, rarely on the ground; solitary, or caespitose. 



I. P. nearly entire. St. distinct. 

 *P. scaly, more or less manifestly veiled. 



1773. L. tigrinus (Bull.) Fr. (= Lentinus Dunalii DC. sec. Quel.) Cke. 

 Illus. no. 1089, t. 1138. Tigrinus, spotted like a tiger. 



P. 3-8 cm., white, or cream colour, variegated with somewhat ad- 

 pressed, brownish, or blackish, fibrillose squamules, fleshy-coriaceous, 

 thin, commonly orbicular and central, convex, then infundibulif orm ; 

 margin often split when dry. St. 3-5 x -5-1-5 cm., whitish, becoming 

 fuscous at the base, very hard, often attenuated downwards and 

 rooting, minutely squamulose, furnished at the apex with an entire, 

 reflexed, fugacious ring. Gills white, then yellowish, decurrent, narrow, 

 crowded, serrate. Flesh white, fuscous at base of stem. Spores white, 

 pip-shaped, 7-9 x 3//,, 1^3-guttulate. Smell strong, acid. On oak, 

 ash, willow, and poplar stumps, and on railway sleepers. April 

 Oct. Not uncommon, (v.v.) 



var. Dunalii (DC.) Fr. Berk. Outl. t. 15, fig. 2. Dunal. 



Differs from the type in the evanescent, adpressed spot-like scales of 

 the pileus, the subsilky stem, and the scarcely manifest veil. On willows, 

 and poplars. Rare. 



1774. L. lepideus Fr. (= Lentinus squamosus (Schaeff.) Quel.) 



XeTrt?, a scale. 



P. 5-10 cm., pallid ochraceous, variegated with darker, adpressed, 

 spot-like scales sometimes becoming rufescent, fleshy, very compact, firm, 

 irregular, commonly excentric, convex, then plane, or depressed, 

 sometimes broken up into cracks. St. 2-8 x 1-3 cm., whitish, covered 

 with tomentose scales that become rufescent, apex smooth, base woody, 

 sometimes rooting, at the first furnished with a cortina towards the apex. 



