Repokt of the State Botanist. 93 



species gives the pores as medium size and entire, and makes no mention 

 of any odor, in consequence of which we have thought our plant distinct. 

 It is, however, extremely variable. 



Var. tenuis is very thin, scarcely a line thick, with short pores and 

 the surface nearly even. It occurs on the smooth decorticated trunks 

 of hemlock. 



Var. tuherculosus has the surface more or less roughened by unequal 

 prominent tubercles, which are either scattered or clustered. They 

 appear to be a monstrous development of the mycelium on the surface 

 of the pores. 



Var. stalactiticus incrusts mosses and therefore has the surface very 

 uneven with numerous and unequal porous protuberances. It most 

 often occurs on prostrate mossy trunks of birches. 



Var. vesicukjsus {F. vesiculosus, B. & C.) has shallow scattered pores 

 as if formed from ruptured vesicles. 



Specimens of this Polyporus, unless dried under pressure, shrink and 

 roll up in unmanageable shapes. They often contain considerable 

 moisture when collected, and if put in press in this condition they are 

 liable to become brown or blackish in drying. Specimens collected in 

 a dry time or in dry situations retain their characters best. The thinner 

 forms, if partly dried before they are put in press, sometimes retain their 

 color and characters well. When growing on bark the patches are some- 

 times interrupted and irregular, in which case the margin is broader than 

 usual and well defined. 



Merulius (Resupinati) aurantiacus, n. sp. 



Effused, membranous, tender, very soft, separable from the matrix, 

 pale orange color, the subiculum soft, silky-tomentose, whitish and 

 pale orange ; hymenium gyrose-plicate and dentate, becoming paler 

 with age ; spores broadly elliptical, .00025 ^^- ^o'^S* -ooo- broad. 



Soft decayed wood of hemlock. Osceola. Aug. 



The species is distinguished by its soft tomentose texture and its 

 orange hues. It is closely related to M. aureus but is at once distinct 

 by its orange, not golden, color. The subiculum is composed of a 

 stratum of whitish filaments next the matrix and another of orange 

 color next the hymenium. Hence the margih in young plants is gener- 

 ally whitish. In mature ones the whole becomes orange colored. Not- 

 withstanding the tender substance the membrane is separnble from the 

 matrix and pieces three or four inches in extent are thus obtainable. 



Merulius fugax, Fr. 



Soft decayed wood of deciduous trees. Osceola. Aug. 



This has the tender, soft and delicate texture of the preceding species, 

 but it is at first of a pure white color. Soon the hymenium assumes a 

 creamy or yellowish hue and the folds appear, but there is often a wide 

 margin destitute of them. In drying, the folds mostly colla]-)se and dis- 

 appear and the hymenium often becomes tinged witli incarnate or flesh 

 color. The wood on which it usually grows is so much decayed that it 

 easily crumbles to pieces. Nevertheless the j^lant is separable from its 

 matrix. 



The spores are oblong, .0003 in. long, .0001 broad. 



I 



