TROPICAL POLYPORES 51 



Collected once in Hope Gardens, Jamaica, attached to the 

 base of a small dead stump, and once at Jalapa, Mexico; also 

 in South America. 



17. GRIFOLA (Micheli) S. F. Gray 



Hymenophore large, annual, stipitate, compound, intricately 

 branched or lobed, humus-loving or epixylous, rarely terrestrial, 

 usually found at the base of a tree-trunk; surface smooth, 

 pallid to gray or brown; context white, fleshy or fleshy- tough, 

 rigid and fragile when dry; tubes large, irregular, thin-walled, 

 becoming friable or laciniate with age; spores hyaline, smooth 

 or rarely verrucose. 



i. GRIFOLA LENTIFRONDOSA Murrill 



Pileus imbricate-multiplex, 15-20 X 20-30 cm.; pileoli mostly 

 spatulate, closely appressed and more or less connate; surface 

 isabelline with a rosy tint, subtomentose, becoming fuliginous 

 with age, margin entire or undulate, sterile, inflexed on drying; 

 context white, radiate-fibrous, separating into tough strings like 

 that of bast-tissue; tubes pallid to light-brown, minute, thin- 

 walled, 2-3 mm. long, mouths angular, edges thin, lacerate with 

 age; spores globose, smooth, hyaline, copious, 3-4 /*; stipe tuber- 

 cular, woody, pallid, expanding into the pileoli, 8 cm. long, 6 cm. 

 thick. 



Collected once on the roots of an oak stump on an exposed 

 railway embankment near Jalapa, Mexico. 



1 8. 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. 



i. PYCNOPORUS SANGUINEUS (L.) Murrill 



Pileus thin, coriaceous, sessile or spuriously stipitate, dimidiate, 

 conchate or reniform, imbricate, laterally connate at times, 

 3-5 X 4-8 X 0.4-0.6 cm.; surface zonate, finely tomentose to 

 glabrous, bright-red, often variegated with yellowish-red zones, 

 fading to pure- white in old specimens exposed to the sun ; margin 

 acute, finely tomentose, yellowish-red; context floccose, elastic, 

 yellowish-red, 1-3 mm. thick; tubes annual, very short, bright- 



