Overholts: Mycological Notes for 1919 137 



siderable surprise that on November 22, 1919, a dead standing 

 sweet birch (Betula lento) was observed bearing a number of 

 excellent sporophores of what proved to be this species. These 

 are the largest sporophores yet seen, and some of them are more 

 applanate than is usually the case. The largest specimen meas- 

 ures 13 X 20 X 5 cm. The tree that bore these sporophores was 

 about two feet in diameter and was later felled for observations 

 as to the characteristics of the decay produced. It was found 

 that the fungus is a sap-wood destroying organism, although per- 

 haps encroaching to some extent on the heart wood. But in the 

 center of the tree there was a cylinder of the dark red, sound 

 heartwood characteristic of this species of tree. Pieces of the 

 log containing both sapwood and heartwood were brought into 

 the laboratory and at the present writing the fungous mycelium 

 has grown out over the surface of the sapwood in a brownish- 

 olive mat, but has not appeared on the adjacent heartwood. The 

 decayed wood has no striking characteristics but the decay ap- 

 pears to be of the general delignifying type, whitening the wood 

 and rendering it brittle but not friable. This habit of being 

 largely confined to the sapwood serves to emphasize the distinc- 

 tion between this species and F. igniarius — a heart-rotting 

 organism. 



A search was then made in the herbarium material represent- 

 ing allied species of this fungus with the result that two addi- 

 tional collections were discovered, both from Pennsylvania. One 

 was taken by Dr. A. S. Rhoads, on Betula lute a in Philadelphia, 

 Pa., December 27, 1915, the other by the writer, on Betula lenta, 

 February 24, 191 8, in the mountains near State College. It is a 

 curious fact that of the three Pennsylvania collections two were 

 from trees growing on the exposed summits of mountain ridges, 

 while in the state of Missouri the writer knew it as frequenting 

 the birches in the lowlands along streams. 



Plants of this species are not as firm and hard as is F. igniarius, 

 and they lack the white incrustation found in the older layers of 

 tubes of that species. In addition the tubes are distinctly strati- 

 fied (see fig. 2) and the context has a decidedly silky luster 

 similar to that in Fom£s everhartii. These points serve to dis- 

 tinguish the species from its allies. 



