Giissow: The Canadian Tuckahoe 



107 



spheric to convex, but later became plano-convex with slightly 

 upturned margin, exposing the tubes of the hymenium. The sur- 

 face was dry, soft and silky to the touch. The flesh was thick in 

 the center, whereas the margin or edge was decidedly thin, only 

 about YiQ of an inch, whilst the tubes towards the edge were 

 nearly yi of an inch in length. 



The color of the pileus was at first light brown but became buff 

 to ochraceous with age. The surface appeared covered with 

 minute, dark buff scales. The margin was very definitely of 

 lighter color than the rest of the cap. (See figure of pileus, 

 Plate 8.) 



The hymenium was dusty from the spores, but otherwise 

 almost the same color as the cap, but slightly grayish, very soft 

 and moist as in some Boleti. The tubes were large, angular to 

 sinuous, nearly twice as long as broad, and later on appeared 

 shallow and the pores lacerated. The tubes are longest towards 

 the dome of the pileus, but become shallow towards the stem, 

 almost resembling reticulations as they become decurrent. 



The spores are hyaline, white in a mass, smooth, often narrow 

 in the middle, but generally ovoid to ellipsoid, with one to several 

 little oil globules. The average size is 10-17 /a by 4-7 /x. 



The stem is solid, compound to branched, almost entirely below 

 ground, rising from a solid sclerotium. Only about half an inch 

 of the stem in our specimen showed the same color as the tubes, 

 the rest was covered with soil particles firmly held. It was about 

 2^ inches long by }^ an inch thick. Length no doubt is deter- 

 mined by the depth the sclerotium is buried. 



These notes have been taken from only one living specimen 

 seen, and are as accurate as they could be made, but which of the 

 characters referred to are permanent and specific, and which may 

 vary, can only be determined from a series of specimens. It is 

 interesting to record that while we may come across many refer- 

 ences to sclerotia-bearing fungi in literature, yet the descriptions 

 of any of those resembling our specimens are meager and in- 

 definite. 



Beginning, for instance, with Fries' Pachyma cocos, to which 

 nearly all authors refer the term Tuckahoe, we cannot identify 



