REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I917 45 



Hypoxylon suborbiculare Peck, Rcp't N. Y. State Mus. 30 : 63. 



1878. ( Not Hypoxylon suborbiculare Welw. & Curr. 



1867 = Xummularia suborbicularis Sacc. 1882) 

 Fuckelia cercidicola Cke. Grevillea 12 : 52. 1883. 

 Nummularia lateritia E. &E. Proc. Phila. Acad. 144, 1893. 



This interesting species was first described by Peck as " D i a - 

 trype cercidicola B. & C./' from specimens collected near 

 Buffalo in 1871 by G. W. Clinton. The host Vvas unknown, but is 

 now recognized asFraxinus nigra. The description is not 

 by Berkeley and neither Berkeley nor Curtis had ever seen the 

 Clinton specimens upon which Peck based his description. Peck 

 says it was like a specimen received from Curtis under that name. 

 That specimen can not now be found in the state herbarium and 

 may have been returned to Curtis. The host of Peck's species was 

 not Cercis, and the Curtis specimen, if in existence, may be at 

 Kew, and was probably not satisfactory for diagnosis since the 

 name was never published except as by Peck. 



Peck later discovered better specimens and repudiated the earlier 

 name by redescribing the fungus as Hypoxylon suborbi- 

 culare. He adds to the confusion, however, by stating that the 

 host was Acer saccharum. Exainination of the host shows 

 it to be Fraxinus nigra. In 1890 Professor Dearness sent 

 specimens of this to J. B. Ellis, which were identified as N u m - 

 mularia rumpens Cooke, but in 1893 Ellis described it as 

 Nummularia lateritia. The Dearness collections were 

 distributed as — E. & E. North American Fungi no. 3033 and Fungi 

 Columbiana no. 326. 



Peck makes no mention of the name given to Clinton's earlier 

 collection when he described Hypoxylon suborbiculare. 

 That he regarded them as the same, at least later on, is shown by 

 the fact that he changed the name on the label of the Clinton 

 specimen to read "Hypoxylon suborbiculare Peck. 

 Reported asDiatrype cercidicola B. & C." 



The name "cercidicola" is most unfortunate, but appar- 

 ently must stand. Peck's later name " suborbiculare " is invalidated 

 by the earlier use of that name both in Hypoxylon and in 

 Nummularia. 



Specimens examined from New York are all upon Fraxinus 

 nigra, viz: Buffalo (G. W. Clinton, type of Dia trype cer- 

 cidicola B. & C; Peck): Sandlake (C. H. Peck, type of 



