Lloyd Mycological Writings V4.pdf - MykoWeb

FUSCUS. CONTEXT BROWN.
The species is one of the hardest, heaviest, rigid Fomes. Several collections
are known from Cuba and Central America. Montagne confused it (from Cuba)
with Fomes senex (from Chile), and the specimen from Cuba was the one he sent
Fries as Fomes senex. I am at a loss to explain how Fries could see any relation
between it and Fomes graveolens, but he did, and his passing remarks evidently
led Cooke to class Fomes senex in section "Merismoidea, with pilei emanating from
a common trunk or tubercule," where it is found to-day in Saccardo, Vol. 6. It has
not even the most remote suggestion of any such pileate development. Smith collected
it in Central America and sent it to Ellis, who had it determined in Europe
(as Fomes senex), evidently on comparison with Montagne's Cuba specimen. There
is no evidence that Murrill knew what Fomes senex was. He renamed it as a "new
species" from the Philippines. But he probably judged on general principles that
Ellis' specimen was misdetermined, so he renamed it Fomes pseudosenex. The
only relation it has to Fomes senex is the confusion with it.
The specimen Montagne sent Berkeley as Fomes senex was not the Cuban
collection that he sent Fries, and Berkeley's determinations of Fomes senex are
mostly right. When Berkeley got Fomes pseudosenex he referred it to Fomes
rhabarbarinus, or rather misreferred it, for microscopic characters are quite different.
Murrill, in addition to naming it Fomes pseudosenex, referred most of the specimens
he got to Fomes extensus.
SPECIMENS. Madagascar, Henri Perrier de la Bathie.
FOMES HYDROPHILUS. Pileus small, with a brown, rugulose,
sulcate surface (context dark brown). Pores small, with a
noticeable sheen on the mouth. Spores abundant, subglobose, 4^-5,
deeply colored. Setae, none.
A light-weight species, represented at New York by one abundant
collection from Jamaica. I have none of the type, hence I am unable
to compare its context color and have only scanty notes on the species.
I was impressed, however, that it is a good species, and that its most
prominent character was its very light weight.
FOMES TEPPERI I. Pileus ungulate, with black, rimose
surface. Context dark brown (Russet). Pores large, long, seemingly
not stratified. Setae, none. Subhymenial cells forming a thick
layer. Spores are many, subhyaline, 6-7 mic., globose; few are deeply
colored, same size and shape.
Fomes Tepperii, based on a single little specimen which I would
not name were it not such a characteristic thing. The general appearance
to the eye, the color and pores are those of Trametes pini, which,
by the way, would be better as Fomes than Trametes, for it forms
distinct pore strata. The varying spore colors of this plant demonstrate
that having "colored spores" is not always a better character
than any other one character.
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