The Polyporaceae of North America—VI. The genus Polyporus 
WILLIAM ALPHONSO MURRILL 
The genus Polyporus, as established by Micheli (Nov. Pl. Gen. 
129. p/. 70-71. 1729), was such a natural division and so clearly 
distinguished that it remained intact for over a century. Its nom- 
enclatorial type was P. leptocephalus (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 Ao/efus 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 /z/roductio listed no species at all 
under Polyporus. It was thus left to Paulet (Icon. Champ. A/. 73. 
1793) to securely establish the genus. Paulet’s work, written 
twenty or more years before its publication, contains descriptions 
and figures of six species of Polyporus ; P. Ulmi, P. frondosus, P. 
umbtlicatus, P. carbonarius, P. fasciatus and P. Tuberaster, four of 
which belong to Micheli’s genus in the strictest sense. The first 
species, P. U/mi, is the very common one well known as P. sgua- 
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). Quélet 
adoptéd new names for both of these groups, Ca/oporus 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 
29 
