IDENTIFICATION OF CULTURES OF WOOD-INHABITING HYMENOMYCETES

A multiple-choice key for the identification of cultures of 149 species of wood-inhabiting Hymenomycetes, whose cultural characters have been published previously, is based on the following diagnostic characters: presence or absence of extracellular oxidase, types of septation of hyphae, occurrence of special structures and accessory spores, color of hyphae and mycelial mats, color changes in agar, rates of growth, formation of fruit bodies, odor, host relationships, and interfertility phenomena. In the key, each diagnostic character is symbolized by a number, the Code Symbol; each species is described in abbreviated form by a Species Code, the series of Code Symbols that denote the characters shown by the species; and each section in the key is headed by its Key Code, the series of Code Symbols that denote the characters shared by all the species in the section. Most of the final sections in the key consist of a number of species with identical or similar Species Codes. In these sections, detailed descri...