THE VARIATIONS OF POLYSTICTUS VERSATILIS 



One must learn Polystictus versatilis by familiarity with it, 

 by handling it. By drawing the line closely a half dozen "species" 



could be made of it. Like 

 most fungi it is a widely 

 distributed plant. We 

 have it from Alabama (i), 

 Brazil (7), Cuba (i), Nic- 

 aragua (2), Straits Settle- 

 ments (i), Madagascar (2), 

 Java (2), India (i), Japan 

 (2). It was named from 

 the Philippines, and hence 

 the "type form" occurs 

 in the East. This form 

 (Figs. 1049 and 1050) gen- 

 erally has large, thin, elon- 

 gated pores and their color 

 is purplish, sometimes quite 

 dark. But the color of 



the pores varies and we have collections with no purplish cast, but 

 tending to ochraceous. The pores are always thin walled, and rarely 

 the walls are pro- 

 longed, becoming 

 somewhat irpicoid. 



In the American 

 tropics the plant 

 sometimes takes the 

 Eastern form, but 

 usually has smaller 

 pores (Fig. 1051). 

 Rarely the American 

 plant has the pores 

 elongated. The spe- 

 cies is light weight, 

 and made up of loose 

 hyphae. The upper 

 surface, usually pale, 

 is always strongly his- 

 pid. The hymenium 

 has hyaline, fusoid, 

 thin walled cystidia, 

 often capitate, but 



Fig. 1050. 



this feature varies, and often the projecting hyphae of the hymenium 

 are longer, slender and not specialized. Notwithstanding the 

 variation of Polystictus versatilis it is easily recognized when one 

 knows it, but the only way to learn it is to become familiar with it. 

 HISTORY AND SYNONYMS. This frequent species seems to have been 

 first collected in the Philippines and distributed by Cummings (2026). It was named 

 Trametes versatilis by Berkeley, and the same collection called Trametes cilicioides, 

 by Fries. It was also called, from a Philippine collection, Hexagona ciliata, by 



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