118 SOUTH NIGEJIAN PLANTS 



is Rumphiiis' Tuher-regimn, and also that it is the one described 

 by Hennings. There are, however, one or two facts which may 

 be added to Hennings' description. The squamules which are 

 present in such quantity on the young pileus do not later 

 disappear. Owing to the expansion of the pileus they become 

 widely dispersed and smaller, but in the largest specimen in the 

 collection with a pileus 24 cm. across the squamules can still be 

 clearly seen. The gills bifurcate at the base and undergo further 

 divisions and anastomoses, but the exact procedure has not been 

 made out. The greatest length of stipe is 13 cm., the greatest 

 width 2-5 cm., and the greatest height of a fungus, excluding 

 the sclerotium, 28 cm. The felt of the stipes (which has quite 

 disappeared from the oldest specimens) is usually a dirty fawn 

 colour. Hennings describes it as " weiss." In a spirit specimen, 

 the colour is in places much darker, the upper parts of the stipes 

 having dark squamule-like patches while the bases are almost 

 black. The stipe is usually equal but sometimes attenuate 

 upwards. 



In the case of the complete sclerotium, the surface is very 

 uneven ; on the projecting ai'eas the colour is usually dark brown 

 or black ; where hollows occur the surface is clothed with a felt 

 which is similar in appearance to that on the stipe. On the 

 upper surface of the sclerotium there are some adhering wood 

 fibres which may be of signiticance with regard to the habitat. 

 In section the sclerotium has a white chalky appearance. 



In 1891 Cohn and Schroeter (in Abhandl. Naturw. Verein 

 Hamburg xi. 4) described a new species of Lentinus, L. Woer- 

 manni, which they had succeeded in growing from a sclerotium 

 also obtained from the Cameroons. Their figures of the fungus 

 resemble greatly the stage of L. Tubcr-regium shown in fig. 2. 

 The only point of distinction is the colour of the stipe which is 

 alnKjst black, but, as stated above, one of the specimens of the 

 present collection, preserved in spirit, bears three fruiting bodies 

 with very dark stipes. The resemblance between the two fungi 

 extends to the microscopic structure. In neither case have 

 spores attached to the basidia been demonstrated. The hyphae 

 of the trama in L. Woermanni were about " 2 mm." [2 /x] broad 

 and thick-walled. In the specimens of L. Tnher-regium examined 

 they are 2-3 /x wide ; the club-shaped basidia are a little longer 

 and measure 3-4 /x across. The cystidia, as in L. Woermanni, 

 are usually merely a little longer and wider than the basidia, but 

 at times they project rather Eiore above the hymenium ; the 

 greatest width measured was 7 fx. The shape of the cystidia is 

 however quite characteristic and agrees exactly with Schroeter's 

 description, " am Scheitel kegelformig zugespitzte Cystiden, an 

 deren Scheitel sich kleine, etwa 2 mm. [2 u] breite kugelformige 

 farblose Zellen bildeten, die sich scliliesslich abgliederten." 



