THE POLYPORACEAE OF WISCONSIN. 121 



14 STROBILOMYCES Berk. 



Hymenophore smooth ; Tubules separable with difficulty, large, equal, 

 pileus and stipe strongly squarrose-scaly, flesh tough. 



Strobilomyces strobilaceus Berk, (Plate XXV, fig. 85). 



Pileus hemispherical or convex, dry, covered with thick floccose pro- 

 jecting blackish or blackish-brown scales, the margin somewhat appen- 

 diculate with scales and fragments of the veil, flesh whitish, changing to 

 reddish then to blackish where wounded ; tubes adnate whitish, becoming 

 brown or blackish with age, their mouths large, angular, changing color, 

 like the flesh; stem equal or tapering upward, sulcate at the top, floc- 

 cose-tomentose, colored like the pileus, ; spores subglobose, rough, black- 

 ish-brown, 10 to 12.5 microns long. 



Pileus 5 to 10 cm. broad ; stem 5 to 8 cm. long, 8 to 21 mm. thick. 



Peck (21, 2, 8, p. 159) makes the following observations on this pecu- 

 liar species: "This species has a peculiar shaggy appearance by rea- 

 son of its dense coat of blackish-brown floccose tomentum which separ- 

 ates into more or less prominent and often angular or pyramidal scales, 

 especially on the disk. When young the hymenium is concealed by the 

 floccose whitish veil. Boletus coniferus, B. echinatus and B. squarrosus 

 Pers. are synonyms of this species. In the description of the last one 

 Persoon says, 'the long whitish tubes adhere quite firmly to the pileus 

 but are not connate with it as in Polyporus, thus noting the essential 

 character of this genus. In some specimens the tubes next the stem 

 are much larger and more irregular than elsewhere." 



Common at Horicon, Madison, Blue Mounds, Devil's Lake, Delafield, 

 and doubtless throughout the state. Largest specimen 18 cm. in diam- 

 eter ; the stem 18 cm. in length and 2 cm. thick. 



The species is easily recognized by the dry dark pileus covered with 

 the thick blackish shaggy scales ; the grayish-floccose veil and the whit- 

 ish pores which become blackish with age or where wounded. 



According to Fries, S. floccopus, its nearest ally, is larger and firmer, 

 and according to Peck the tubes are depressed around the stem. 



