nothing purple about it. The types at Berlin are very poor, and we think these are the only 

 .good specimens in any museum. 



NOTE 337. Exidia caespitosa, from Miss A. V. Duthie, South Africa. Truncate, densely 

 caespitose, so that it appears cerebriform. Color pale amber brown. Imbedded near the sur- 

 face are slender, broken, deep colored ducts (gloeocystidia). Basidia not found. Spores not 

 seen. This species has same color and papillae as the Exldia purpureo-cinerea, differing in 

 shape and structure. The form is like that of Exidia truncata of Europe, but its caespitose 

 manner of growth, much paler color, and smaller size, all distinguish it. 



NOTE 338. Xerotus fuliginosus, from Miss A. V. Duthie, South Africa. The genus Xero- 

 tus, in the sense it has acquired by use, is simply a Panus with colored, distant gills. It occurs 

 in warm countries only. As to the species, I have never studied them in detail in the mu- 

 seums, but my impression in looking through the cover is that they are largely the same. We 

 have in our collection, we believe, three different species. 



Xerotus nigritus. This, we believe, is the most common species and widely distributed. 

 When young it is reddish brown (tawny of Ridgway), but becomes dark, almost black, when old. 

 Several of our collections show both conditions, and intermediate stages. The spores are 8 x 14, 

 hyaline, apiculate with granular contents-. The coloring matter is readily dissolved in potash, 

 and the resulting solution is a dark green color. This species we have from the Philippines, 

 E. D. Merrill and several collections from our Southern States. Our American plant was 

 called Xerotus lateritius in its young (tawny) state, and Xerotus viticola when old and black. 

 (Cfr. also Note 165, Letter 53.) 



Xerotus fuliginosus. This, the same size, shape and color as young nigritus, does not be- 

 come dark when old. The spores 6x8, hyaline, also quite different. I have determined it from 

 description only. I presume Xerotus fragilis is same thing. These specimens from Miss A. V. 

 Duthie, South Africa, are all I have. 



" Xerotus Archeri. This, the same color as preceding, is spathulate, with short, thick stipe. 

 The basidia are colored and form a palisade layer, and I find no spore. There are greenish 

 granules seen, which Kalchbrenner evidently took for spores and based on them the genus 

 Anthracophyllum (sic). I have one collection only from Dr. Steward, West Australia. 



NOTE 339. Stereum laxum, from Miss A. V. Duthie, South Africa. Resupinate, loosely 

 woven, but forming a soft membrane. Context brown. Hymenium white. The entire tissue, 

 hymenial and subhymenial, is formed of loosely woven hyphae, the latter colored, the former 

 similar but hyaline. The hyphae are 3-3 'i mm. thick, and the hymenial bears small granular 

 thickenings. Basidia clavate, not forming a layer. Cystidia none. Spores 3H-4 x 5, hyaline, 

 smooth. 



It grew resupinate on a dead leaf. The loosely woven hymer.ium indicates the genus Hy- 

 pochnus, but as the plant is a soft membrane I think it better in Stereum. 



NOTE 340. Hirneola auricula-Judae. In a lot of typical Hirneola auricula-Judae, the 

 luxuriant, tropical fcrm received from Dr. Joas Dutra, Brazil, is a specimen with the hyme- 

 nium so strongly reticulate-porose that it could well be taken for Hirneola delicata. I presume 

 this is the Brazilian plant over which Bresadola and Moeller had such a bitter controversy. I 

 think they were both right and both wrong. The Brazilian plant I take to be a form of Hir- 

 neola auricula-Judae, not Hirneola delicata, as both Bresadola and Moeller refer it, and I think 

 Moeller was right in saying it is a form of Hirneola auricula-Judae and wrong in referring 

 it to Hirneola delicata, although from s. single specimen like this it is very hard to point out 

 why it is not Hirneola delicata. In Samoa, however, where I found Hirneola delicata fre- 

 quently, it did not even suggest to me Hirneola auricula-Judae, and there were no connecting 

 forms. "Species" in nature are only relative and subject to local conditions.* In Brazil one 

 has good grounds to consider Hirneola delicata and auricula-Judae the same. In the East 

 they are such different plants that one could not possibly class them together. 



NOTE 341. Sterenm Kalchbrenneri, from I. B Pole Evans, South Africa. Named 

 ampenum by Kalchbrenner, from South Africa, and changed by Saccardo on account of dupli- 

 cation of name. These specimens agree exactly with cotype at Kew. It is very close, and I 

 think a form of Stereum hirsutum, being more luxuriant with more scabrous, brighter colored 

 upper surface, but the hymenium is just the same. It is evident to me that in the original de- 

 scription Kalchbrenner confused this plant with Stereum involutum, as he described the 

 hymenium, as "lilaceo vel alutaceo." There is no lilac shade ever to any species of the hirsutum 

 group, always yellow or cinereous. These specimens from Mr. Evans agree with the cotypes 

 of Stereum Kalchbrenneri at Kew from MacOwan, South Africa, and I take the species in 

 this sense. I have seen several specimens of Stereum involutum (which has lilaceous hyme- 

 nium) in the museums, determined 'as Stereum Kalchbrenneri, but it is an error, at least as far 

 as the cotypes at Kew are in evidence. 



NOTE 342. Daedalea Eatoni, from I. B. Pole Evans, South Africa. A thin plant, but with 

 same context, color and pores, there is no doubt it is a thin (probably the first year's) growth 

 of Daedalea Dregeana. From one of the specimens of Daedalea Dregeana, 1 pulled off a thin 

 (supplementary growth) pileus that can not be told from Daedalea Eatoni. 



NOTE 343. Daedalea Dregeana, from I. B. Pole Evans, South Africa. A thick, rigid 

 Trametes-like plant with hard, aniline yellow context and rigid daedaloid pores. The type is 

 at Paris. It is a Fomes-Daedalea, the old pore layers indistinct, being filled up with the con- 

 text tissue. It has no cystidia, and spores I do not find. This is the first time I have received 

 the type (thick) form, though the thin form (cfr. Daedalea Eatoni) I have previously gotten. 



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