OF SOl’TH AUSTRALIA. 
241 
Spores white. 
Resupinato-effused, margin becoming free, whitish. 
Reticulations flesh-coloured to ochruccous tawny 
and tawny olive. On un<lersides of rotting 
sticks, etc ;i8(i. M. corium. 
Effused, shining, wliite becoming slightly brownish, 
adherent. Reticulations sliallow .187. M. eandulus. 
.885. Merulius lacrymans (Wulf.) Fr. (L., lacrymans, weeping). — Forming 
spongy-flesliy sheets of tissue, resupinate or eft'uso-reflexed, 2 to 4in. (5 to 10 
cm.) 01 ’ more (up to 20in., 50 cm. — Rea) in extent, exuding drops of water 
when growing, on damji workeil wood in buildings, timber yards, etc. A specimen 
from Lockleys, near Adelaide, .Tuly, forms a sheet about fin. in size, 1 mm. thick, 
the hymenial surface consisting of obtuse irregular deep reddisli brown (near 
Auburn, ii.) folds 1 to 2 mm. thick, tlie opj)osite surface somewhat wrinkled and 
radiately disposed, near Cinnamon Buff (xxxx.), spores elliptical, yellowish brown, 
9 X 5 M- 
This is sometimes called the “dry-rot fungus,’’ thougli it is not by any means 
the only species capable of ctiusing a fungus rot in worked wood in houses, and 
moreoyer, it necessarily requires a ceifain amount of moistuie for its development. 
Timber which is kept diy cannot be attacked by fungi and it is probably owing 
to our dry climate that we are relatively immune to losses fj'om tliis and similar 
fungi ; M. lacnjmmiK, for instance, has only been rocoi'<led this once for South 
Australia, ilassee <losci'ibes the whole fungus as being generally broadly effused, 
soft and tender, at first very light, cottony and wldte, but when the irregular 
folds forming the fruiting ])ortion appear, these are yellow-orange or reddish 
brown in colour. When the l)rown spores are set free from the surface of these 
folds, they may be wudely distiabuted and settle and develop on suitable moist 
timber in other parts of the Ixiiilding or elsewhei’e. Before this stage is reached, 
the fungus spreads by contiguity or l)y the transport of tlie mycelium in pieces 
of rotting infected wood. Care must tlierefore be taken that, in removing the 
diseased wood, every portion which is infected or is likely to be in an early stage 
of infection, is taken away and l)urnt and it is v('ry important that the fungus 
should be detected and destroyed befori^ tlie spoiing stage has been reached. 
?>8(i. Merulius corium (Pers.) Fr. (Gr., chorion, leatlier). — Forming tliin skin- 
like patches, varying in size according to the sulistratum from under one inch 
(2.5 cm.) to several inches long and from lin. (1.2 cm.) to lin. (2.5 cm.) wide 
(8in. X sin., ('in. x lin., etc.), usually on the underside of rotting twigs, sticks, 
bark, and fallen waiod, occasionally compacting small twigs, etc., together. The 
patches are soft when moist, resupinate cff'used, the margin when old separating 
from the underlying matrix and Ijecoming free and curled up so that portions 
can be pulled off' like pieces of skin (corium), the fertile surface reticulato- 
porous, the ])ores very shallow, first ajiiiearing as minute reticulations. The 
sterile surface extensive, often remaining sterile for long, whitish, the fertile 
reticulations “flesh colour or pale tan’’ (Rea), in our [ilants becoming Ochraceous 
Tawny (xv.) and darker, near Tawny Olive (xxrx.), etc., when treat(‘d with 
corrosive sublimate — carbolic acid — spirit preservative becoming near Flesh Ochre 
and Apricot Orange (xiv. ). llyphae 8.5 to 5.5 y thick. Spores elongated, wdiite, 
5.5 to 8.5 X 2.2 to 8.5 y. S<iuth Australia — Beaumont, Mount Lofty, National 
Park (on fence j)osts, etc.), Kalangadoo (S.E.). Queensland. New South Wales. 
Victoria. New Zealand. Eurojic, etc. Aj)ril to August. 
887. Merulius candidii.s Tdoyd. (L., oandidun, shining white). — Forming 
irregular rounded or elongated very thin patches u]> to 1(1 x 1.5 cm., resembling 
splashes of whitewash with outlying spots conti’asting with the brown of the 
dead branchlets on which it is growing. Except where the shallow reticulations 
of the pores a]>pear, the surface, is smooth like that of the glaze on some forms 
of cotton-wool. The edge is fairly sharply determinate. The pellicle separates 
with difficulty. Pure white with in places a t(>ndencv to brownish disc(doration, 
when effete becoming brownish like a fade<l leaf. Pores very shallow, irregularly 
polygonal to elongated, 0.5 to 1 mm. wide, the dissepiments vein-like or as low 
reticulations. Hyphae mostly very fine, rather curly, felted, 1.5 to 2 y thick, 
rarely more. New South Wales — Lome, near Kendall. 
