﻿Two recently named Genera of Basidiomycetes. 



By Lucien M. Underwood. 



The publication of the parts of Die uafiirlichen Pflarusenfamilien 

 relating to fungi have presented some phases of ancient practice 

 still in use at Berlin that we supposed belonged only to the earlier 

 ages of plant nomenclature. One of these is so prominent a viola- 

 tion of all canons of nomenclature that we must pretest against it. 

 It consists in widening the scope of a genus already established and 

 then giving an uncalled-for new name to the group thus established. 



Kalchbrenner * gave the name Bolctinns to a group of Boleti 

 of which B. cavipes Opat. was the type. Later Peck f extended 

 the genus so as to include other forms in which the pores were 

 somewhat radially arranged and whose pore-layer separated with 

 difficulty from the hymenophore. In the last issue of the Basidio- 

 mycetes, % Herr Hennings has still further modified the genus so 

 as to include Boletus cavipes Opat. which he places in " Sect. III. 



Boleti xus Kalchbr." together with B. rufus Schaeff., B. luteus L. 



and other European and American species, and proceeds to baptize 

 the whole combination with the name Boletopsis P. Henn. We 

 are amazed that this sort of thing is permitted at a center where 

 strict attention is supposed to be given to correct nomenclature 

 and where specific rules have emanated that have had world-wide 

 notice and criticism. Boletopsis P. Henn., is therefore a worse than 

 useless synonym, and Boletinus Kalchbr. must stand in its place. 

 Another error of an earlier issue of the same work, namely the 

 establishment of the genus Kneiffiella P. Henn. needs correction 

 and we take the task in hand the more readily because the first 

 oversight of a previous genus of the same name in recent litera- 

 ture here made by Herr Hennings, was made by us nearly a year 

 prior to the date of publication of exactly the same name in Die 



*Iconessel. Hym. Hung., 52. 1877. 



t Bull. N. Y. Slate Mus. 2 : 74. 1889. 



% Engler-Prantl. Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien, I 1 * * : 194. 1898- This 

 awkward and needlessly complex form of citation for a volume is characteristically 

 clumsy and indicates a lack of attention to detail which editors should never allow. 



(G30) 



