78 TROPICAL POLYPORES 



ii. FOMES GEOTROPUS Cooke 



Pileus woody, conchate, very thick behind, 6-12 X 10-20 

 X 2-4 cm.; surface pruinose to glabrous, roughly rugose, ano- 

 derm, azonate, irregularly concentrically undulate, stramineous 

 to cremeous; margin tumid, pallid, brownish when bruised, 

 slightly undulate, deflexed; context corky, pallid to isabelline, 

 0.5-1.3 cm. thick; tubes distinctly stratified, 0.5-1.5 cm. long 

 each season, pale-chestnut-colored, fading out in the older 

 layers, mouths circular, minute, 5 to a mm., edges thin, entire, 

 rose-colored when fresh, becoming darker and discolored with 

 age or when bruised. 



Frequent on living and dead trunks in many parts of tropical 

 America, causing serious decay. 



38. FOMITELLA Murrill 



Hymenophore sessile, at times semiresupinate, applanate, 

 epixylous; surface glabrous, anoderm to encrusted, sulcate 

 with age ; context woody or slightly punky, brownish-olivaceous, 

 rarely varying to pallid; tubes minute, cylindric, usually thick- 

 walled, more or less stratose at maturity; spores smooth, hyaline. 



Tubes 5 to a mm. i. F. supina. 



Tubes 1-2 to a mm. 2. F.fumoso-avellanea. 



i. FOMITELLA SUPINA (Sw.) Murrill 



Pileus rigid, corky to woody, dimidiate, thin, sessile, imbricate, 

 plane or concave below, 4-6 X 5-10 X 0.5-1 cm.; surface finely 

 tomentose to glabrous, azonate, smooth or rugose, varying from 

 white to umbrinous, often blotched with purple or entirely 

 purplish-black behind; context corky, zonate, greenish-isabelline 

 to olivaceous, 2-6 mm. thick; tubes normally perennial, annual 

 in many specimens, indistinctly stratose, 1-3 mm. long each 

 season, isabelline to grayish-umbrinous within, mouths circular, 

 rarely elongate, 5 to a mm., edges rather thin at maturity, entire 

 but slightly uneven, isabelline to umbrinous; spores globose, 

 smooth, 4 /*. 



Very common throughout on various forms of dead wood. 



2. FOMITELLA FUMOSO-AVELLANEA (Romell) Murrill 



Pileus corky, sessile, imbricate, decurrent, applanate, convex 

 below, triangular in section, 2-4 X 5-10 X 1-2.5 cm.; surface 

 anoderm, tomentose, uneven, azonate, opaque, dull-colored, 

 avellaneous to umbrinous; margin usually thin, isabelline, rarely 



