A NEW FOSSIL POLYPORE

ARTHUR HOLLICK

Pseudopolyporus carbonicus gen. et sp. nov.

Pileus about 4.4 cm. in diameter, approximately flat on top with uneven surface, slightly concave beneath with evenly and minutely roughened and pitted surface, margin rather abruptly inflexed. Stalk central or slightly eccentric, cylindical, about 2.8 cm. in length and 1.2 cm. in diameter, with conical base. (Figs. 1, 2.) I, Carboniferous.

Elk Ridge Colliery, West Virginia.

Type in the Museum of the New York Botanical Garden. This specimen was brought to light during a recent examination of a collection of carboniferous plants from West Virginia, included in the materal deposited with the Garden by Columbia University in 1901. Neither the name of the collector nor the

date of collection is recorded, the labels merely reading: "Fossil plants below Seam 3, Elk Ridge Colliery, Pocohontas Field, W. Va." This colliery is situated near Ennis, McDowell County, in the southern part of West Virginia.

The fossilizing medium is a highly ferruginous, fine-grained arenaceous shale, which has completely replaced the vegetable

tissue.

In fact, the question may be raised whether the specimen is actually of organic origin. The occasional striking similarity of purely inorganic concretions to living organisms, both animal and vegetable, is well known; but in this instance the resemblance to a hymenomycetous fungus appears to be too perfect to be regarded as an accidental simulation.

It is apparently referable to the Polyporaceae, as indicated by the character of the under surface of the pileus, and may be compared with Polyporus Polyporus (Retz.) Murrill, so far as its nearest living relationship is concerned; but its antiquity should preclude a reference to the living genus Polyporus, and it is clearly different from any of the fossil forms described under that genus or under the fossil genus Polyporites, all of which are from the Tertiary or more recent geological horizons, except Polyporites Bowmanni Lindley and Hutton,* from the Carboniferous of England, which is generally considered by paleontologists to be a fish scale and not a fungus. In fact, the only fossil forms with which our specimen may be even remotely compared are Hydnum argillae Ludwig,† and Agaricites Wardianus Meschinelli,‡ both of them from Tertiary horizons.

The generic name is designed to indicate its probable botanical affinities and the specific name its geologic age.

NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN.

*Foss. Fl. Great Britain 1: 183, pl. 65, f. B1 and B2. 1831-33.

"Fossile Pflanzen aus der Altesten Abtheilung der Rheinisch-Wetterauer

Teritär-Formation." Palaeontog. 8: 57, pl. 8, f. 1, 1a-Ic. 1859.

"Di un Probabile Agaricino Miocenico." Atti Soc. Veneto-Trentina Sci. Nat. 122: 312, pl. 8. 1891.

NEWS AND NOTES

Mr. Frank D. Kern, of Purdue University, spent the month of January at the Garden, continuing his studies of the Uredineae of North America.

Dr. M. A. Howe recently returned from an expedition to Panama made primarily for the purpose of collecting marine algae. A number of fungi that inhabit marshy ground and driftwood were secured on this expedition. The February JOURNAL contains Dr. Howe's report.

A monograph by Dr. C. H. Kauffman of the fifty-six species of Russula found in the state of Michigan has recently appeared as a reprint from the eleventh report of the Michigan Academy of Science. It should prove of great value to students of this very difficult genus of gill-fungi.

Several species of Boletaceae have been treated popularly, with illustrations from growing plants, in an article by Mr. W. H. Ballou in the Scientific American Supplement for December 18, 1909.

Mr. Norman Taylor returned from Santo Domingo on January 2, bringing with him 1,700 specimens of plants for the Garden herbarium, among them several specimens of fungi, the perishable species of which were illustrated in colors by Mrs. Taylor. A full account of Mr. Taylor's experiences appeared in the JOURNAL of the Garden for January.

Volume 9, part 3, of North American Flora, containing descriptions of the Boletaceae and Chantereleae by W. A. Murrill, and the genus Lactaria by Gertrude S. Burlingham, appeared

February 3, 1910.

published in this part.

Several new genera and new species are

Professor Bruce Fink, of Oxford, Ohio, has begun a study of the Graphidaceae, and wishes to see as much newly collected material from tropical regions as can be secured. He would be glad to receive such collections for determination or to correspond with collectors in any tropical or subtropical regions.

"Some Problems in the Evolution of the Lower Fungi' (Annales Mycologici 7: 441-472. 1909), by Professor G. F. Atkinson, recently appeared as Publication 43 of the Botanical Society of America, being the address of the retiring president delivered at the Baltimore meeting in 1908. The author advances a number of strong arguments in support of the theory that the lower fungi are derived from unicellular organisms, either colorless or chlorophyll-bearing, rather than from the confervoid or siphonaceous algae.

Dr. W. A. Murrill returned from Mexico January 29 with 2,000 specimens of fleshy and woody fungi, collected at various elevations from the vicinity of Cordoba and Jalapa on the east to Colima and Tecoman on the west. Accompanying the collection are 120 colored illustrations of the more perishable species, drawn by Mrs. Murrill. Many interesting original photographs were also secured. A full account of this expedition will appear in the JOURNAL of the Garden for March.

The gray squirrels in the Hemlock Grove have found the severe winter very trying without their accustomed store of chestnuts. Mr. E. W. Humphreys recently observed one of them making a meal on Stereum hirsutum, a leathery fungus occurring commonly on dead wood, which would seem unpalatable to the last degree. During the summer, squirrels are very fond of species of Russula, and other fleshy forms appearing on the forest floor, and red squirrels in Alaska have been known. to carry fleshy forms into the trees and preserve them for future use; but I believe this is the first instance recorded where a tough form like Stereum has been so used.