Q0 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Poria mutans Peck 



Plate io, figures. 1-4 



43d Rop't N. Y. State Mus., p. 39. 1890. 



Polyporus mutans Peck, 41st Rep't N. Y. State Mus., p. 77- 1888. 



Original description. Resupinate, rather thick, tough, following 

 the inequalities of the wood; pores minute, rotund, short, buff- 

 yellow or cream color, becoming dingy red or dull incarnate where 

 wounded, the subiculum fibrous, changing color like the pores, the 

 whole plant assuming an incarnate hue when dried. 



Decaying wood of deciduous trees. Selkirk. August. 



Sometimes a narrow, reflexed obtuse margin of a yellowish 

 brown color is formed. The pores are often oblique. The species 

 appears to be quite distinct by reason of its peculiar colors. 



Notes. The type collection contains abundant material but the 

 species is one that changes much in drying and consequently it must 

 be carefully interpreted. The material' is in pieces up to 4 cm long 

 and broad (plate 10, figure 1). The chief characteristics of the 

 dried specimens are the hard, almost bony consistency and the dull 

 rusty color. The color of the hymenium is now light pinkish cinna- 

 mon in some specimens, and tawny or russet in others, and there- 

 fore with less red than in P . 1 a e t i f i c a , although the colors 

 of the fresh plant must be similar to those of that species, judging 

 from Peck's descriptions. Only in the younger specimens is there 

 a rather thick sterile and often more or less abrupt margin present ; 

 in mature specimens the margin is fertile. The thickness of the 

 hymenium-producing portion is at present 1 to 5 mm and probably 

 in fresh plants somewhat thicker. The subiculum is quite con- 

 spicuous and its thickness sometimes equals the length of the tubes, 

 but is often considerably less. The tubes vary in length from 1 to 

 3 mm in the type. In a collection from Bolton, N. Y., they are as 

 much as 5 mm long. Their mouths are angular in mature plants 

 but rounded in young specimens. According to Peck their color 

 is buff yellow or cream yellow in fresh specimens and becoming 

 red when wounded. Their diameter is 3 to 4 to a millimeter where 

 mature, and the dissepiments are rather thin but entire. There is 

 no sheen or silkiness to the hymenium. 



The spores are broadly ellipsoidal or nearly globose, but some 

 are apiculate at one end and inclined to ovoid (plate to, figure 2). 

 They are hyaline under the microscope and 3.5 to 5 ^ long by 2 to 

 3.5 ju broad. The best developed portions of the hymenium in the 

 type collection are sterile aid where spores were obtainecj it m% 



