REVISION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN НүрхАСЕАЕ lil 
Rance: Alabama, Нате, Baker ; Vermont, Burt. 
Icon.: Bulliard, Herb. de la France, pL 453. f. г 
Exsicc.: Fautrey, Herb. Crypt. de la Cote- d'Or (France) 
2282. Rabenhorst, Fung. Europ. 1409. 
The above description was written from the dried specimens 
and without any field notes, and may, therefore, be inaccurate in 
some particulars. The plants grow among the needles of con- 
ifers which become imbedded in the pileus or adhere to the surface 
in a way that suggests its being probably viscid. The species 
has been generally known by Persoon's name. Many specimens 
that are referred to Sistotrema confluens Pers. prove to be flat 
toothed forms of ZZ. repandum but the above collections are very 
distinct and answer in all particulars to Bulliard's plant. In his 
original description of S. confluens Persoon said “ pileo suberoso ” 
but in Syn. Fung. 551 he says * pileo carnoso." In other respects 
the descriptions are alike and the references are the same. It 
would seem, therefore, that the first expression was an error. 
Although the above collections are so widely removed from each 
other geographically there appears to be no question of their 
identity. 
If we regard these plants as typical representatives of the 
genus .575/0/ғета, there appears to be no ground whatever for 
separating that genus from Hydnum. Karsten in the Revue 
Mycologique 3: 19. 1881, places the genus .Szsotrema with 
Merulius and Phlebia in the tribe Merulieae which he first as- 
signed to the Hydneae and afterward to the Polyporeae. While 
Phlebia appears to be more closely related to Merulius than to 
any of the genera of the Hydnaceae, I should place it in the 
family Thelephoraceae, but Szstotrema confluens Pers. seems to be 
congeneric with Hydnum repandum in every particular except the 
almost constant tendency of the hymenial surface to form pores. 
This character, however, is not uncommon among Hydnaceae and 
cannot be considered in itself as a sufficient ground for even generic 
distinction.* In fact the separation of the families Polyporaceae 
and Hydnaceae on the basis of the hymenial surface in the former 
case consisting of pores and in the latter of teeth must be made 
with considerable mental reservation. 
* Cf. Hydnellum zonatum, Hydnum sublamellosum and Steccherinum adustum. 
