1908] ATKINSON—POLYPORUS LUCIDUS 333 
but a careful examination with the oil immersion lens reveals their 
true structure. . 
Besides the markings of the spores of these species, there is another 
peculiarity which has been erroneously interpreted by those who have 
tried to describe them. This peculiarity relates te the form of the 
spore. PaTouILLARD?3 in 1889 describes them as truncate and 
emarginate at the base (tronquées et echancrées & la base) and in 
1900*4 simply as truncate at the base. BRESADOLA?S says the spores 
in Ganoderma lucidum are obovate, at length truncate at the base 
(sporae obovatae, demum basi truncatae). Murrii?® describes 
them in several species as follows: ‘Spores ovoid, obtuse at the 
summit, attenuate and truncate at the base.” But a careful study 
of the spores shows that exactly the reverse is true. The base of the 
spore is the broadly rounded end, while the apex is the narrowed, 
“truncate” end. In Ganoderma lucidum (Leys.) Karsten from 
Europe, including the forms collected by myself on the fir in the Jura 
Mountains, in G. tsugae Murrill and G. curtisii (Berk.) Murrill, both 
from the United States, the spores are all similar and practically 
identical. They are ovate in form, and when they are lying so that 
they can be seen in side view, they are seen to be more or less inequi- 
lateral, that is, one side is more convex than the other. The place 
where the spore was attached to the sterigma is at the side of the 
broad rounded end opposite the convex side. Sometimes a minute 
_ angle can be seen here where the sterigma was attached. Boiling the 
Spores in a weak solution of potassium hydrate brings out the entire 
Structure more clearly, and at this point, where the sterigma was 
attached, the spore wall is very thin, there being a slender channel 
*xtending from the endospore almost through the epispore to the 
Point where the sterigma was attached. The treatment with potash, 
OWever, is not necessary in order to demonstrate the characteristic 
Structure of the spores described above in these species. An exami- 
“ation of the spores in the plate will show several in which the very 
thick wall at the apex is still intact and forms a broad conelike cap 
*S Bull. Soc. Bot. France §:66. 1889. 
*4 Essai taxonomique sur les familles et les genres de Hyménomycétes 105- 1900. 
*S Hymenomycetes Hungarici Kmetiani. Atti Acad. Sci. IIT. 373. 1897. 
* Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 29:601. 1902; N. Am. Flora 9#:118, 120. 1908. 
