1908] ATKINSON—POLYPORUS LUCIDUS 335 
Ganoderma lucidum Karsten, Rev. Myc. 3:no. 9, p. 17. 188t. 
Ganoderma tusgae Murrill, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 29:60r. 1902; North Amer- 
ican Flora 9?:118. 1908. 
Sporophore large, usually stipitate, rarely sessile, annual, rarely 
perennial, convex above, concave or plane below; pileus dimidiate, 
teniform, or rarely circular, margin plane or broadly crenate to lobed; 
surface smooth, sometimes coarsely radiately rugose, incrusted with 
a reddish or blackish substance shining like varnish, sulcate, the 
shallow concentric furrows marking off zones which are often narrow 
and crowded on the margin; trama or context punky, often quite 
firm and hard especially next the hymenophore, brown to pallid whitish, 
Whitish above, brown next the hymenophore, zonate especially next 
the stem, though sometimes faintly; stem when present lateral or 
excentric or rarely central, long or short, sometimes forked, o.5-4°™ 
in diameter, even or irregular, sometimes enlarged below, varnished 
and colored like the pileus, context colored like that of the pileus 
°r somewhat darker; hymenophore of long slender tubes, brown 
within, 3-5 to a mm., mouths circular angular, white or yellowish, 
finally brown, dissepiments entire, obtuse, thin, acute; spores ovoid 
'0 ovate, rounded at the base and slightly inequilateral in side view; 
wall hyaline, smooth, thickened at the apex into a broad conelike 
Cap which usually collapses, leaving the apex truncate or even de- 
Pressed, everywhere perforate with numerous slender dark-colored 
€s which radiate from the endospore through the epispore, 9-11 X 
$8. Fig rt 
A large and attractive plant, very conspicuous because of its brilliant varnished 
‘ppearance. Common on decaying stumps and trunks of frondose and coniferous 
There appear to be forms or physiological species in this species. In 
Europe the form more commonly collected is on frondose trees, and is regarded 
“typical. The usual color of these is a reddish chestnut. 
The forms cannot be well separated into species, though some of them may 
: Tegarded as elementary or physiological species or forms. Among these may 
Mentioned the following: a, 
- PSEUDOBOLETUM TyPICUM.—On trunks and roots of frondose trees in 
Europe (also in N. A, ?); color reddish chestnut. 
G. PSEUDOBOLETUM TSUGAE (Murrill) Atkinson.—On hemlock-spruce (T'suga 
“madensis) in the United States and British America. Since the form does not 
STOW on wood of frondose trees in America it may be regarded as a physiological 
