than the context and have darker mouths. 16 Spores are oblong, 

 4x 12 mic., hyaline, smooth. 



FORMS. I think there are no forms worthy of separate names. The 

 usual Eastern form is almost globose and about a cm. in diameter, but the 

 same form occurs also in the West, and the type of Polyporus obvolutus from 

 California was of this nature. In the West there is also a larger, more robust 

 form which we also illustrate. 17 It is generally compressed, globose. This 

 larger form is called in Saccardo (incorrectly) "var. obvolutus," and by 

 Hennings "var. Helix," and by Patouillard, from China, "var. pleurostoma." 

 All are exactly the same as our Western form. (It grows also in China and 

 Japan, and I have a collection from A. Yasuda from the latter country.) The 

 first collection that was found in the Torrey herbarium, from "Sandy Desert, 

 California," had a short stipe and was called "var. Torreyi." I think the plant 

 normally is always sessile, and this stipitate "form," I think, was due to growing 

 in some abnormal position. 



HISTORY. Professor Peck named the plant, but he did not collect it 

 first. There was a collection in the Torrey herbarium, part of which was 

 sent to Upsala (probably during the latter part of Fries' life) but it was not 

 named. It was sent by Gerard and endorsed "in sandy deserts, California," 18 

 The history of the plant in Europe was so carelessly made that it probably 

 should not be told in plain English. The usual way of arranging a lot of 

 Latin names in a row, which is the plan adopted to hide the truth, would 

 perhaps be better. Berkeley never saw the plant while he was engaged in the 

 work, but the species first reached Cooke from Harkness. Cooke did not 

 know it, but sent it to Berkeley, who named it "Polyporus evolvens, B. & Cooke." 

 Cooke probably noted that the name was preoccupied 10 and published it under 

 the name Polyporus obvolutus (Grev. 7, p. i) and gave a "description." 20 

 Fortunately it happened that Professor Peck, who gave a full account and 

 illustration "saw it first", about a year before this "work" was done in Europe. 

 Otherwise I suppose we would have had learned date dictionary arguments 

 advanced as to why we should not use volvatus as a name on account of a 

 "prior description." 



POLYSTICTUS PINSITUS (Fig. 262). Pileus thin, flexible, 

 tough. Context white. Surface densely velutinate with appressed, fine 

 hairs. Color varying from light cervine to dark seal brown. Pores 

 pale or sometimes dark, large, shallow, with thin, angular, denticulate 

 edges. 



Polystictus pinsitus is a frequent plant in tropical America and the West 

 Indies. There are specimens at Kew from New Orleans (type of Polyporus 

 sericeo-hirsutus), North Carolina, Brazil (several), Cuba (many), Mexico, 

 Guadaloupe (a very brown specimen). It seems, however, to be confined to 



16 Professor Peck described the mouths as cinnamon brown, but in the Western form 

 they are dark brown, or rather fuliginous. 



17 In our illustration the larger specimens are the Western form, from A. J. Hill, British 

 Columbia, and the smaller specimens are the Eastern form. 



"Further account of this collection is given by Professor Peck, Bull. Torr. Club, 

 vol. vii, p. 104. 



19 Berkeley had applied the same name to a Brazilian plant. 



20 The following is the full description as published: "Scarcely exceeding an inch in 

 diameter and two-thirds as thick." It was brief, but strongly "descriptive." 



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