288 GRAFF: PHILIPPINE BASIDIOMYCETES 
Polyporus gibbosus Nees, Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. 13: 19. 
pl. 5. 1837. 
Polyporus coclear Nees, Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. 13: 20. 
Phe Os 3837. 
Fomes lingua Sacc. Syll. Fung. 6: 156. 1888. 
Ganoderma amboinense forma lingua Pat. Philip. Jour. Sci. 10: 
(Bot.) 96. 1915. 
Luzon: Province of Laguna, Mount Maquiling, April, 1913, 
P. W. Graff, Bur. Sci. 21014, on decaying log at 500 m. elevation. 
PoLILLo: Province of Tayabas, Mount Malulud, August, 1909, 
' C. B. Robinson, Bur. Sci. g1o1, at an elevation of 300 m.; same 
locality, October-November, 1909, R. C. McGregor, Bur. Sct- 
10534. 
This fungus is so variable in the shapes it may assume that 
it is not surprising the earlier workers described it under a number 
of names. The writer has seen it growing in a great variety of 
forms, varying from those having a pileus of considerable size 
and almost lacking a stipe to forms growing from cracks and 
holes of decaying logs which had a long slender stipe and a very 
small fruiting end of no greater diameter than the stipe itself. 
Branching forms also are occasionally found. An interesting 
example of one of these branched specimens was found in a Negrito 
village by one of the Jesuit Fathers, and brought by him to Manila. 
The specimen had developed five branches and the similarity in 
shape to a hand was very striking. At the point of branching the 
fungus had spread in such a manner as to resemble the palm, while 
the five branches were each tipped with fruiting surfaces, which 
being lighter in color thus formed the finger nails. The natives 
of the village had found this specimen in the forest and brought 
it in on their return. Such a remarkable thing as a hand reaching 
out of a tree was to them anting-anting or supernatural, and the 
object was being worshiped by these superstitious people. 
Such specific names as have been given to this plant at various 
times, as digitatus, elatus-coclearis, coclear, and lingua, give some 
suggestion of the shapes the plant may assume. It is no wonder 
that, without available material for comparison, botanists of 
different countries should each have described this under his own 
name. 
