Murrill: Polyporaceae of North America 231 



B. officinalis \\\\a.YS, Delph. 1041. 1786. 



B. purgans Pens. Syn. 531. 1801. 



Polyponis officinalis Fr. Syst. I : 365. 1821. 



This fungus has becMi known from ancient times on account of 

 its medicinal properties and is still collected in considerable quan- 

 tities in the larch forests of Kurope and Asia for use in medicine. 

 Single specimens are sometimes found weighing as much as fifteen 

 pounds in the dry state. Many of the older botanists mention this 

 plant. Hauhin (Pinax, 375. 1623) gives a good general descrip- 

 tion of it under the name "Agancion, sive fungtts laricis." Micheli 

 figures it (Gen. />/. 61. f. i. 1729). Even Dioscorides knew its 

 value. According to Miss Southworth, the substance of the fun- 

 gus consists mostly of resin-granules about knots of mycelium, 

 containing at times one or more curiously shaped bodies resem- 

 bling branching bast cells, which grow out from the mycelium. 

 These resin-granules contain the medicinal properties. 



The European host of this fungus is the living larch. In 

 America, it has been found also on pine and spruce. Specimens 

 found in Michigan in 1886 on living white pine were used by 

 Calkins and others instead of quinine. MacDougal collected a 

 very handsome specimen on dead spruce in Montana in July, 1901. 

 Macoun also found it on spruce in British Columbia in April, 

 1889. A recent note in Science from Professor Bessey refers to 

 specimens received by him from Montana and the Yellowstone 

 Park, collected on undetermined species of conifers. Calkins' re- 

 port of this species in America a dozen or more years ago evi- 

 dently escaped Professor Bessey's attention. 



II. Pomes populinus (Schum.) Cooke 



Boletus popidiiius Schum. Enum. PI. Saell. 2: 384. 1803. 



Poria obdiicens Pers. Myc. Eur. 2: 104. 1825. 



Polfponis connatiis \Wt\nm. Fl. Ross. 332. 1836. En. Stirp. 

 Petrop. 208. 1837. 



Polvponts connat2is Fr. Epicr. 472. 1836-1838. Icon. //. 

 185./. 2. 



Fomes connatus Gill. Champ. P^rance, i : 684. 1878. 



Fomcs popiilitius Cooke, Grevillea, 14: 20. 1885. 



Finland (Karsten), Bavaria (de Thiimen), Germany (Sydow), 

 England (Massee), Sweden (Murrill), Canada (Dearness, Macoun), 



