IFrom the Bulletin op thb Tokubv Botanical Cub, 31 ; 29-44 January, 1904.] 



The Polyporaceae of North America — VI. The genus Polyporus 



WlLUAM Al.rHONSO MURRILL 



The genus Polyporus, as established by Micheli (Nov. PI. Gen. 

 129. //. 70-ji. 1729), was such a natural division and so clearly 

 distinguished that it remained intact for over a century. Its nom- 

 enclatorial type was J\ leptoccphalus (Jacq.) Fr. and associated with 

 this species were some of the most common and well-known mem- 

 bers of the family. Unfortunately, however, Linnaeus retained 

 the name Boletus for all pore-bearing fungi, and those mycologists 

 who adopted Micheli's genus failed to establish it according to 

 modern ideas. Adanson, for example, only cited Micheli's figures 

 and listed no properly named species ; Haller used only poly- 

 nomials ; and Scopoli in his Introductio listed no species at all 

 under Polyporus. It was thus left to Paulet (Icon. Champ. />/. /j. 

 1793) to securely establish the genus. Paulet's work, written 

 twenty or more years before its publication, contains descriptions 

 and figures of si.x species of Polyporus ; P. Uhni, P.frondosus, P. 

 u)idnlicatus, P. carbon arius, P. fasciatus and P. Tuheraster, four of 

 which belong to Micheli's genus in the strictest sense. The first 

 species, P. Ulmi, is the very common one well known as P. squa- 

 mosus (Huds.) Fr. and must be considered the nomenclatorial type 

 of Polyporus according to principles now in vogue. The general 

 use of Polyporus instead of Boletus is chiefly due to Fries, who, 

 without knowledge of Paulet's work, " restored " the name in 1815 

 and made it popular in spite of the influence of Linnaeus. 



In recent systems of classification the original significance of 

 the term Polyporus has been somewhat perverted. Karsten, for 

 example, assigned Polyporus to the terrestrial central-stemmed 

 forms and placed the wood-loving species under the new genus 

 Polyporellus (Medd. Soc. Faun. et. Fl. Fenn. 5 : 37. 1879). Quelet 

 adopted new names for both of these groups, Caloporus for the 

 first and Leucoporus for the second, and erected the monotypic 

 genus Cerioporus on Polyporus caudicinus (Enchiridion Fungorum, 

 164-167. 1886). Patouillard followed Quelet in the main, but 



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