118 REVISION OF THE NoRTH AMERICAN HYDNACEAE 
3. Hericium caput-ursi (Fries) 
Hydnum caput-ursi Fries, Monog. Hym. Suec. 2: 278. 1863. 
Friesites caput-ursi Karsten, Medd. Soc. Faun. et Fl. Fenn. 5: 27. 
1879 
Hydnum caput-ursi brevispineum Peck, Bull. М. Y. State Mus. 
Nat. Hist. 5: 656. 1800. 
Plant large, tuberculous, the tubercle narrowed behind into a 
comparatively small point of attachment about 1 cm. wide, sub- 
pyriform, compressed vertically or sometimes laterally, the outer 
portion of the tubercle broken up into numerous short stout de- 
formed branches о.5-2 cm. long by о.5-3 cm. wide, which are 
again branched into smaller short branches that terminate in pen- 
dent teeth, the whole mass being 8—15 cm. long, 10-16 cm. wide, 
6—12 cm. thick ;* in a front view the mass appears more or less 
heart-shaped, color white to ochraceous, and in drying brownish 
to fuscous on the lower teeth ; substance fleshy fibrous, somewhat 
tough; teeth slender terete, tapering, acute, subflexuose, pendent, 
shorter toward the top, о.5-2 cm. long, about 1 mm. wide ; spores 
globose to subovoid, numerous, white or hyaline, uniguttulate, 
5.5-7 и wide. 
Нав.: On beech. 
RANGE: Canada, Macoun; Vermont, Burt; New York, Un- 
derwood, Cook, Peck, Southwick, Burlingham ; New Jersey, Porter ; 
Indiana, Underwood. 
Icon. : Fries, Icon. Select. Hym. A. 7; Peck, Mem. N. Y. 
State Mus. Nat. Hist. 3: pl. 67. f. 8-12; Peck, КЕ м: Y. 
State Mus. 51: pl. 56. f. 8-12. 
The plant seems to have been described by Scopoli in Flora 
Carniolica 2: 473. 1772, but was referred to HH. coralloides. 
Not until 1863 did it receive recognition as a distinct species. It 
is intermediate between X. coralloides and H. Erinaceus, being dis- 
tinguished from the former by its tuberculous body and from the 
latter by the short branches from which the teeth are pendent. 
The tuberculous body is not always pendent as shown by Fries, 
but is sometimes horizontal and even ascending as shown by Peck. 
The plant varies also in the relative size of tubercle and branches 
and in the length of the teeth, apparently due to some local dis- 
turbances in the nutrition of the plant. Abnormally short teeth 
* By length is meant in direction of growth; width is horizontal and at right 
angles to the first; and thickness is the vertical dimension. 
