

THE STIPITATE STEREUMS. 



LEGEND. For some years we have been quite embarrassed by receiving many specimens of 

 Stereums from foreign correspondents that we could not name, as we were familiar only with the 

 species of Europe and the United States. During the past winter we studied by comparison, and by 

 microscopical sections, the various historical specimens we found named in the several museums we 

 visited (Kew, British Museum, Leiden, Berlin, and Paris). We found the Stereum species, as we find 

 all mycological sections that we investigate, in a very chaotic and confused condition, owing to the 

 multiplication of names and the careless and superficial work of those who have engaged in the pro- 

 mulgating of so-called "new species." Particularly is this true as regards the stipitate section of the 

 genus, which, it appears to me, was in much worse condition (if possible) than the Apus section. 



In the earliest systematic work worthy of the name, Persoon's Synopsis Fung- 

 orum (1801), the Thelephoraceous plants, which are fungi with even hymenium, are 

 divided into two genera, Thelephora and Merisma. The latter embraced the species 

 of an encrusting nature, and while not so clearly defined is the same exactly as has 

 in recent years been discovered to be a "new genus" and called "Soppittiella." 



The remainder of the plants which Persoon called Thelephora he divided into 

 three sections 



Craterellus Pileus stipitate. 

 Stereum -Pileus dimidiate. 

 Corticium Resupinate. 



It will be noted that the plants embraced in this pamphlet would have been 

 originally classed by Persoon under the sectional name Craterellus, and they may 

 still be so juggled with as much merit as belongs to the most of such cheap work as 

 is being done nowadays under the guise of "priority." In late years they have been 

 called Podoscypha, also without much originality, as Persoon called the same sec- 

 tion Craterellus. 



In the usually-employed Friesian system, which is only a modification of that 

 of Persoon, Corticium was taken in nearly its original sense. Craterellus was re- 

 stricted to the fleshy species and did not include either of the original species, and 

 the remainder of the species were divided between Stereum and Thelephora. 

 Exactly what distinction Fries had in mind between Stereum and Thelephora, it is 

 hard to define. The "homogeneous" and "heterogeneous" nature of the tissue on 

 which he based the difference is not marked enough to be the base for generic 

 distinction. All of Fries' species of Stereum have hyaline spores and pale hymenium, 

 and most of his species of Thelephora have colored spores and dark hymenium. It 

 is the tendency of late years to make this the distinction between the two genera, 

 and in my opinion it is the best. Many of the old species classed as Thelephora 

 under this definition will fall into the genus Stereum. 



Modern "systematists" find it to their interest, of course, to break up the old 

 genera into as many "new genera" as possible in order to make a lot of new names, 

 which is the only advantage, and of very doubtful utility. Thus Karsten in 1881 

 discovered that stipitate Stereums form a new genus, which he called Cotilydia. 

 Patouillard in 1900 discovered that the same section wa? a "nov. gen.," which he 

 called Podoscypha. 



There is another group of "systematists" who are engaged in discovering "new 

 genera" on the " hairs " they find on the hymenium. Leveille was the father of these 

 hair experts, but he was not particular as to the kind of "hairs." Any Thelepho- 

 raceous plant which had hairs was for Leveille a Hymenochaete, though he did not 

 observe the subject closely enough to know which of his own species belonged to his 

 "new genus." Cooke carried the matter further and divided the "hairs" into 



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