PSEUDO-SCLEROTIA OF LENTINUS SIMILIS, &C. 
13 
appearance, about 2 diameter, on short lateral pedicels 
about 2 ^ long, perpendicular to the hypha. The remainder 
of the mycelium is composed of inflated, irregularly nodular, 
coralloid ” hyphse, up to 12 ^ diameter, which bear short, 
thick branches often inflated above, and subglobose swellings. 
In cross section it is seen that the walls of these hyphse are 
laminated and thickened, the cavity varying from about 4 
in diameter to a mere point. The coralloid ” hyphse 
apparently adhere to one another, but separate on heating 
with dilute caustic potash. 
The whole of the mycelium swells in caustic potash, but 
the swellmg is most marked in the case of the irregular 
corstlloid hyphse ; the walls of the latter, however, do not 
dissolve. Iodine in potassium iodide gives a faint yellow 
colouration, as does also chlor-zinc -iodine. Watery methylene 
blue stains the regular hyphse slightly, but the irregular 
hyphse more deeply. All stain with Congo red, but not with 
eosin. With picric aniline blue, or cotton blue, the thin- 
walled regular hyphse stain deeply, but the remainder takes a 
very slight, or no, tinge. 
A second pseudo -sclerotium was obtained from the same 
spot in 1914. This consisted of a subfusoid piece 23 cm. 
long and 7 cm. diameter, originally wood, to which was 
attached a piece of bark 16 cm. by 13 cm. It bore twenty- 
three pilei of the Lentinus in different stages of development, 
arising chiefly from the bark or at the junction of the bark 
and the wood. The surface of the wood is weathered and 
irregularly split, and has almost completely lost its red colour. 
It is very friable when sawn, and splits irregularly. Its weight 
is in marked contrast to that of the previous specimen, its 
specific gravity being only 0-28. In the absence of any 
previous knowledge of these structures, it would appear to be 
merely a piece of semi-decayed wood. 
Microscopic examination shows that the cells of the medul- 
lary rays have in some places disappeared, while in others 
they persist with their walls much reduced in thickness, or 
corroded and fragmentary. The vessels, as a rule, remain, 
but their walls are reduced in thickness. The fibres on the 
whole persist, in some cases with walls reduced to the middle 
