TROPICAL POLYPORES 71 



i. PHAEOLUS SISTOTREMOIDES (Alb. & Schw.) Murrill 



Pileus spongy, circular, varying to dimidiate or irregular, 15- 

 20 cm. broad, 0.5-2 cm. thick; surface setose-hispid to strigose- 

 tomentose and scrupose in zones, ochraceous-ferruginous to 

 fulvous-castaneous or darker, quite uneven, somewhat sulcate, 

 obscurely zonate; margin yellow, rather thick, sterile; context 

 very soft and spongy, fragile when dry, sometimes indurate with 

 age, flavous-ferruginous to fulvous, 0.3-0.7 mm. thick; tubes 

 short, 2-5 mm. long, flavous within, mouths large, irregular, 

 averaging I mm. in diameter, edges thin, becoming lacerate, 

 ochraceous-olivaceous to fuliginous, rose-tinted when young 

 and fresh, quickly changing to dark-red when bruised; spores 

 ellipsoid, 7-8 X 3~4M stipe central to lateral or obsolete, very 

 irregular, tubercular or very short, resembling the pileus in surface 

 and substance. 



Occasional in Mexico and Cuba on trunks, stumps, and 

 roots of various coniferous trees, causing a very serious red- 

 dish-brown rot of the roots and lower part of the trunk. 



34. COLTRICIELLA Murrill 



Hymenophore small, annual, tough, epixylous; stipe attached 

 to the vertex of the pileus; surface of the pileus anoderm, zonate; 

 context spongy, fibrous, ferruginous; tubes angular, one-layered, 

 dissepiments thin; spores ellipsoid, smooth, ferruginous. 



i. COLTRICIELLA DEPENDENS (Berk. & Curt.) Murrill 



Hymenophore gregarious or cespitose; pileus very small, 

 conic, pendant, vertically attached, 1-2 cm. broad, about i cm. 

 thick; surface cinnamon-colored, soft, elongate-striate, sericeous, 

 subzonate; margin acute, fibrillose; context spongy, very thin, 

 ferruginous-fulvous, 1-2 mm. thick; tubes long, 5-8 mm., fulvous, 

 mouths large, angular, 1-2 to a mm., smaller near the margin, 

 edges thin, toothed, yellowish to fulvous; spores ellipsoid, 

 smooth, ferruginous, 7-8 X 3.5-4^; stipe central, attached at 

 the vertex, cylindric, gradually enlarging as it approaches the 

 pileus, about i cm. long, 1-3 mm. thick, resembling the pileus 

 in surface and substance. 



Occasional on decorticated pine wood in the Carolinas and re- 

 ported on Liriodendron in Florida. It may not occur within our 

 range but is well worth a careful search. 



