SOUTHERN POLYPORES 29 



thick; tubes 0.2 cm. long, 7 to a mm., at first fuliginous, becoming 

 pallid at maturity, polygonal, irregular, edges very thin and 

 fragile, becoming lacerate; spores globose, smooth, copious, 

 5 n ; stipe tubercular, woody, blackish below, connate-ramose, 

 lighter-colored, passing insensibly into the pileoli above. 



Occasional about old stumps and trunks of deciduous trees 

 in Louisiana. P. giganteus of Europe is very similar in appear- 

 ance. 



3. GRIFOLA FRONDOSA (Dicks.) S. F. Gray 



Pileus imbricate-multiplex, 15-40 cm. in diameter; pileoli very 

 numerous, branching from a common trunk, imbricate or con- 

 fluent, variable in size and shape, dimidiate to flabelliform, 1.5-6 

 cm. broad; surface smoky -gray, fibrillose, radiate-striate; margin 

 thin, undulate or lobed, strongly inflexed when dry; context 

 white, very thin, tough, fragile, having the odor of mice; tubes 

 white, 2-3 mm. long, mouths circular and regular when young, 

 3 to a mm., often large and angular with age, edges white, thin, 

 entire to lacerate; spores subglobose to ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline; 

 stipe tubercular, white, connate-ramose. 



Occasional in the southern Appalachians at the base of oak 

 trees, causing serious decay. Edible when young. 



4. GRIFOLA BERKELEYI (Fries) Murrill 



Pileus imbricate-multiplex, 15-50 cm. broad, 10-20 cm. high; 

 pileoli very broad, applanate to infundibuliform, thin, 5-15 cm. 

 broad, 5-15 mm. thick; surface white to obscurely alutaceous, 

 subtomentose, rugose-undulate; margin acute, undulate to 

 lobed, sterile, often inflexed; context white, tough, fragile when 

 dry, homogeneous, milky in young plants, 5-10 mm. thick; 

 tubes decurrent, white, unequal, 2-5 mm. long, mouths angular, 

 about I mm. broad, edges soft, white, entire, very fragile when 

 dry; spores globose, roughly echinulate, 6-8 ju; stipe short, 

 tubercular, 5-10 cm. thick. 



Occasional northward at the base of oak trees, causing serious 

 decay. 



17. PYCNOPORUS P. Karst. 



Hymenophore annual, sometimes reviving, epixylous, sessile, 

 dimidiate, simple or imbricate, rarely pseudo-stipitate ; surface 

 anoderm, slightly pelliculose at times, zonate or azonate, bright- 

 er dull-red; context red, soft-corky to punky; hymenium con- 

 colorous, tubes small, firm, thin-walled; spores smooth, 

 hyaline. 



