This is a widely distributed plant and occurs in most warm countries of 

 the world. Like all widely distributed plants it varies, and it is not practicable 

 to maintain all the specific names that have been given to it. As to pore size 

 those with the smallest pores were named Hexagona pulchella (Fig. 305), 

 then the type size (Fig. 306) and the largest size (Fig. 307) were called 

 Hexagona polygramma. With hardly two collections with exactly the same 

 sized pores, it is difficult to maintain these "species." And yet the pore sizes 

 have some value for they are usually uniform in specimens of the same col- 

 lection. They also vary as to color, and particularly in the development of 

 a glaucous pore covering. Some collections have no sign of it, others are 

 partially glaucous, and others strongly glaucous. Hexagona cervino-plumbea 

 is only a glaucous form. 



Fig. 305. Fig. 306 



Comparative pore sizes. Fig. 305, pulchella. Fig. 306, tennis (type). 



Fig 307 

 - 37- polygramma. 



History. The first specimen recorded was brought by Humboldt from 

 South America and is still preserved in Hooker's herbarium. It was published 

 by Hooker as Boletus tenuis in Kunth Synopsis (1822) and in the preceding 

 paragraph an anomaly of the same species as Boletus reticulatus. 23 However, 

 this was not the first specimen to reach Europe, for it is found in the Linnaean 

 herbarium with no clue to its source. It is labeled "Boletus favus, Linn.," an 

 obvious error as pointed out first by Klotzsch, then by Berkeley, and very 

 recently by Mr. Murrill. 24 Hexagona tenuis is a very common species in many 



23 As this was published at a "previous date," according to Kuntze's method of reckoning 

 dates, it was necessary to find another species called reticulatus to put forth as a rea- 

 son for not taking the name. This was not a Hexagona, but that was a minor matter com- 

 pared to the importance of Hooker having published reticulatus in a previous paragraph to 

 tenuis in the same book. It was Klotzsch who first recognized that reticulatus was only an 

 altered condition of tenuis, and he so indorsed it on the label, from whence was obtained the 

 information that was dilated upon at length recently, forgetting to mention that it had all 

 been published in full by both Klotzsch and Berkeley many years ago. 



24 "Im Linne'schen Herbarium, Boletus favus' ist Polyporus tenuis, Hooker." Klotzsch, 

 1832. 



"Hexagona tenuis is marked in the Linnaean herbarium Boletus favus, but not by Lin- 

 naeus, with whose description it does not correspond. The name is evidently not authorita- 

 tive." Berkeley, 1842. 



"This species is found in the Linnaean herbarium marked Boletus favus, but not by Lin- 

 naeus, nor with his sanction." Murrill, 1905. 



Had Mr. Murrill, instead of copying Berkeley, done a little investigating in the Linnaean 

 herbarium he would have found that "this species" was named by Dickson many years after 

 Linnaeus died, and under the circumstances he would have had considerable trouble in ob- 

 taining Linnaeus' "sanction." 



24 



