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q 
30 MurrRILL: POLYPORACEAE OF NorRTH AMERICA 
used Polyporus in the Karstenian sense instead of Ca/oporus and 
proposed the new name JMe/anopus for the group to which Karsten 
had assigned the name Polyporellus (Hymenom. Eur. 137. 1887). 
One finds, therefore, four modern generic names, Polyporedlus, 
Leucopovus, Cerioporus and Melanopus, associated either with the 
type or with a near ally of the type of the genus Polyporus and 
hence synonymous with it. 
The species of this genus are in general very similar in appear- 
ance and habit, most of them being small dark-colored plants 
attached to fallen branches and other decaying wood on or neat 
the ground. One species, however, P. caudicinus, is very large 
and does considerable damage to living trees, especially in Europe 
where it is abundant. The smallest plant of the genus is P. Act 
w/a, a tropical form only two millimeters in diameter represented 
by a single specimen in the Kew herbarium. Many other species 
of this group are based upon very scanty collections, some well 
preserved, others now in poor condition, and most of them inade- 
quately described. The task of the monographer is, therefore, 
in this case unusually difficult and his results more or less unsatis-_ 
factory. : 
: 
Synopsis of the Norih American species 
_ 
. Stipe pallid or light brown, centrally attached, not darker than the aa 
Stipe — or partly black or fuliginous, variously attached, ay ‘sua than | 
17 
the pileu 
2. Margin of pileus not ciliate. 3 
Margin of pileus ornamented with cilia, which often disappear with age. 129 
3. Pileus beset near the margin with hydnoid process  F. hydnicepse 
Pileus plainly villose, tomentose or scabrous, often becoming glabrous with age. 
ileus minutely tomentose or glabrous ins the first 
4. Pileus pies irregular, pre margin involute ; stipe axa tubes small, 
, dissepiments dentate. cab ie 
Pileus ial or tomentose 
. Pileus becoming virgate from the rupture of the cuticle, tubes 2 to a mm., decuh 
rent, dissepiments dentate. 3. P. virgatis KS 
' Pileus not becoming virgate. Oy 
wn 
6. Pileus less than 2 cm. in diameter, ochraceous, tubes 2 to a mm., decurrent to the 
base of the stipe. 7 se af delicatus. 
Pileus more than 2 cm. in diameter. e 
