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L entinus lepideus is common on Finnish railway sleepers made of pine wood. Of the 280 railway stations studied, its fruit bodies were observed at 156 stations, which were fairly evenly distributed o er the railway net . There is some concentration on less used and poorly maintained lines. Railway age and station size have little influence. During the observation period of five years no yearly differences in the occurrence were noted. Fruit bodies emerge at the end of June, and their number remains almost constant up to September. While carrying out botanical field work in 196367 on Finnish railways (so far treated in SuoMrNEN 1969 a and b ). I made some notes on the fungi of the wooden railway sleepers. These observations relate almost exclusively to one single species, the lamellate macrofungus Lentinus lepideus Fr. This species is known to have specialized on railway sleepers, and in Finnish handbooks it is named 'ratapolkkysieni' = the 'railway sleeper fungus '. Besides my own collections, there are six specimens from railway sleepers in H. Lentinus lepideus is listed (BENITO MARTINEZ 1963: 6667) among the most important railway sleeper fungi of Spain, France, England, Belgium, Germany and Sweden, being recorded from more countries than any of the other fungi . It is also common in Canada (GROVES 1962: 161 ), often occurring on railway sleepers and causing serious rotting. Besides railways, it occurs on wooden bridges, posts and mine props, and on pine stumps in nature. Writing of the species in Finland, at a time when railways were still new and limited in extent, KARSTEN ( 18 76 : 234 ) reports: »Ad ligna Pini vereautumno. In regionibus borealibus sat frequens, in australibus rarior.» The scarcity of herbarium specimens from Lapland is evi40 dently due only to inadequate collecting; the species occurs up to Inari Lapland (KALLIO & KANKAINEN 1964: 191 ) . In forests Lentinus is of minor importance as a decomposer of wood, whereas it causes serious damage to railway sleepers. The following circumstances make sleepers (and posts, etc. ) particularly suitable substrates for L entinus: 1) Finnish railway sleepers are made of Pinus sylvestris L ., and L entinw lives in pine wood (and in Larix· KoNIG 1957 : 251) . 2) The fungus needs considerable moisture (KONIG, loc. cit.) and this is often found in wood in contact with the soil. 3) The optimal growing temperature of L entinus is high, ca. 27 °C (information received from 'Lahontorjuntayhdistys r.y.', the Finnish association for the control of wood rot) , and dark sleepers lying in open railway yards and track beds certainly become warm on sunny days. 4) For sleepers old, slow-growing pine trees with a large proportion of hard, reddish, resinous heartwood are preferred. Lentinus is a specialist of heartwood (KoNIG, loc. cit.). 5) Heartwood cannot be completely impregnated with wood preservatives, and Lentinus spores can penetrate through the impregnated sapwood, falling or being washed by rain down deep clefts arising in the wood during drying. 6 ) Lentinus is particularly resistant to coal tar creosote. According to information from the State Railways and Lahontorjuntayhdistys r.y .. creosote oil is used in Finland at the rate of 8090 kg / m 3 sleepers (ca. 89 kg / sleeper ) , and ca. 18 % of the ca. 13 million sleepers are unimpregnated ( 1970 ) . As much as ca. 100 kg creosote oil j m (BECKER 1972 ) is needed to give adequate protection against Lentinus. BENITO MARTINEZ ( 1963 : 65 ) cites instances of Lentinus tolerating up to 2430 kg/rna Thus L entinus is able to develop on the sleepers when insufficient creosote oil has been applied or some evaporation has taken place. The fungus is probably also able

On the occurrence of the fungus Lentinus lepideus Fr. On the railway sleepers in Finland