ZOB 



A BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL. 



Vol. III. JULY, 1892. No. 2. 



CONNECTING FORMS AMONG POLYPOROID FUNGI. 



BY LUCIEN MARCUS UNDERWOOD. 

 Read before the Indiana Academy of Science December, 1891. 



As a prelude to this preliminary paper on the generic limits of the 

 Polyporei, we wish to call attention to some of the anomalies in 

 the pronunciation of the plural oi fungus. The novice, innocent 

 of classical erudition, usually essays it zs, fungi ; the classically 

 minded man brings it out as foon-gee, while a growing tendency, 

 fathered at Harvard, fostered at Cornell, and by them distributed 

 far and wide \s fmige. This last is (i) a hybrid and (2), a mon- 

 strosity, and should be relegated to the department of teratology. 

 Clearly two forms are allowable. If with our classical friends we 

 believe that some novelty must be instilled into a dying tongue, then 

 the melodious {}) foo7igee may be used. But since English is des- 

 tined to take the place formerly held by Latin as the universal lan- 

 guage of science, we deem it more logical as well as involving more 

 common sense to say fungi. 



The oldest genus of this family is Boletus established by Dillenius 

 in 1719^ In this genus Linnaeus included all the "Pore-fungi" 

 known to him, passing over Polyporus established by Micheli in 

 i729\ Haller established Merulius in I768\ and Bulliard added 

 Fistulina in 1781^ When Persoon gave his systematic survey of 

 the fungi in I8oI^ three genera were recognized. Of these he es- 

 tablished D?edalea and adopted Meruhus (under which he placed 

 Cantharellus, Adans. as a sub-genus), and Boletus (under which he 



iCat. Giss. 188. 



■'Nova Plantarum Genera, 129. 



^ Helv. em. 150. 



* Champ. I, 314. 



^ Synopsis Methodica Fungorum. 



