a by de Schweinitz (Synop.
fung. Car. No. 606. p. 81).

LENTINUS Fr.

The plants of this genus are tough and pliant, becoming hard when old,
unless very watery, and when dry. The genus differs from the other tough
and pliant ones by the peculiarity of the gills, the gills being notched
or serrate on the edges. Sometimes this appearance is intensified by the
cracking of the gills in age or in drying. The nearest ally of the genus
is _Panus_, which is only separated from _Lentinus_ by the edge of the
gills being plane. This does not seem a very good character on which to
separate the species of the two genera, since it is often difficult to
tell whether the gills are naturally serrate or whether they have become
so by certain tensions which exist on the lamellae during the expansion
and drying of the pileus. Schroeter unites _Panus_ with _Lentinus_
(Cohn's Krypt. Flora, Schlesien, =3=, 1; 554, 1889). The plants are
usually very irregular and many of them shelving, only a few grow
upright and have regular caps.

=Lentinus vulpinus= Fr.--This is a large and handsome species, having a
wide distribution in Europe and in this country, but it does not seem to
be common. It grows on trunks, logs, stumps, etc., in the woods. It was
quite abundant during late summer and in the autumn on fallen logs, in a
woods near Ithaca. The =caps= are shelving, closely overlapping in
shingled fashion (imbricated), and joined at the narrowed base. The
surface is convex, and the margin is strongly incurved, so that each of
the individual caps is shell-shaped (conchate). The surface of the
pileus is coarsely hairy or hispid, the surface becoming more rough with
age. Many coarse hairs unite to form coarse tufts which are stouter and
nearly erect toward the base of the cap, and give the surface a
tuberculate appearance. Toward the margin of the cap these coarse hairs
are arranged in nearly parallel lines, making rows or ridges, which are
very rough. The hairs and tubercles are dark in color, being nearly
black toward the base, especially in old plants, and sometimes pale or
of a smoky hue, especially in young plants. The pileus is flesh color
when young, becoming darker when old, and the flesh is quite thin,
whitish toward the gills and darker toward the surface. The =gills= are
broad, nearly white, flesh color near the base, coarsely serrate,
becoming cracked in age and in drying, narrowed toward the base of the
pileus, not forked, crowded, 4-