8 



Mycologia 



Ad truncos emortuos Abietis pectinatae. Hung. 



Redescription: Perennial, or at least often persisting for as 

 much as three or four years, effused in orbicular or elongated 

 patches 3-9 cm. long, 2-5 cm. broad, and up to 1.5 cm. thick, 

 separable at least in age, with a narrow adnate or loosening border 

 on which partially formed pores are visible under a lens ; subiculum 

 distinct but scarcely 0.5 mm. thick, white when fresh, more yel- 

 lowish on drying; tubes in old plants in distinct layers separated 

 by thin layers of context and in drying sometimes partially loosen- 

 ing from each other, typically with the growth of each season not 

 covering all the hymenial area produced in the preceding season, 

 1.5-5 mrn - l° n g" each season, close to light vinaceous fawn (flesh 

 color) when fresh, some specimens drying out to cinnamon drab 

 or avellaneous, others to fuscous or dusky drab, subcircular to 

 angular, rather thick-walled, averaging 5-6 per mm., the dissepi- 

 ments entire ; spores broadly ellipsoidal to nearly globose, smooth, 

 hyaline, 3-5 /x diameter ; cystidia none ; hyphae hyaline, mostly very 

 thick-walled, simple, with cross walls but no clamps, diameter 4.5- 

 7-5 



On rotten logs of deciduous wood, especially beech and birch. 



Specimens Examined: North Conway, N. H.; Ithaca, James- 

 ville, and Catskill Mts., N. Y. ; Oxford and West Elkton, Ohio ; 

 Frankfort, Mich. 



The characteristic features of the species appear to be the flesh- 

 colored tint of the hymenium of fresh plants, this fading and 

 darkening on drying ; the peculiar perennial habit with the receding 

 growth and well-marked layers of successive years; and the very 

 compact trama with thick-walled hyphae as much as 7.5 /x diameter 

 (Fig. 6, a). 



No specimens are at hand in which more than four layers of 

 tubes are present, and the plant is evidently not indefinitely peren- 

 nial. Each layer of tubes is laid down on a thin, distinct layer of 

 context, and in dried specimens these layers have separated to such 

 an extent that they may be readily removed, one from the other. 

 Moreover, the peculiar habit of the receding marginal growth 

 suggests that at the beginning of successive years the hyphae that 

 have persisted are in localized areas from which the current sea- 

 son's growth proceeds, forming at first, on the surface of the old 

 hymenium, small orbicular patches which gradually enlarge but 

 never or rarely cover the entire area of the old hymenium. 



