11 



AUSTRALIAN1FUNGI : NOTES AND DESCRIPTIONS. 



NO. 2. -THE SCLEROTIA-FORMING POLYPORES 



OF AUSTRALIA. 



By J. Burton Cleland, M.D., and Edwin Cheel, Botanical 

 Assistant, Botanic Gardens, Sydney. 



[Read April 10, 1919.] 



Plates I. to V. 



In Australia there seem to be at least three species of 

 stipitate polypores growing from large true sclerotia, and 

 two from large false sclerotia. Of those with true sclerotia, 

 the best known is Polyporus mylittae, the "Native Bread." 

 It is characterized by a very large sclerotium, which on section 

 is divided up into alveolar spaces, whilst the fruiting body 

 has a whitish pileus with a centre the colour of a poached 

 egg. The sclerotium of the second species resembles closely 

 that of the former, but is smaller, whilst the pileus is brown. 

 C. Gr. Lloyd (Mycolog. Notes, No. 39, December, 1915, p. 

 533, figs. 728-732) has described specimens of this species 

 received from one of us as Polyporus mylittae, but we have 

 compared our other examples of it with fruiting bodies 

 obtained from B. T. Baker, described by him (Proc. Linn. 

 Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. xxvii., p. 542, 1902) and deposited 

 in the Technological Museum, Sydney, and the two are 

 apparently distinct species. The sclerotium of the third form 

 is also very large (one weighed 7 lbs.), and resembles the other 

 two, though the exterior differs, and the cut surface does not 

 show any alveolar arrangement. So far we have not obtained 

 fruiting bodies of this. 



The forms with false sclerotia have a deeply-situated 

 mycelium which penetrates and surrounds sand and small 

 stones, compacting them together into a mass, at times 

 enormous. One of these is Laccocephalum basilapiloides, the 

 "stone-making fungus/ ' and the other is the fruiting body 

 belonging to the mycelial masses referred to by Lloyd when 

 speaking of Polyporus tumulosus (Synop. of Sect. Ovinus of 

 Polyp., p. 87). 



We have had an opportunity of examining the type of 

 the former in the Herbarium of the University of Adelaide, 

 and find it is closely allied to, but apparently not identical 

 with, a specimen we recently collected that seems to be the 



