LETTER No. 52. 



THE NAMED AND MISNAMED SPECIMENS OF THE 

 EXSICCATAE. 



By C. G. Lloyd. 

 (Cincinnati, June, 1914.) 



This pamphlet might be titled with more accuracy "The named and 

 misnamed specimens of the exsiccatae in the British Museum," for it re- 

 cords only those I have noted in this museum. There are additional ex- 

 siccatae in other museums, but nowhere else have I found as many exsic- 

 catae and as conveniently arranged for taking off a list. Most of the 

 important exsiccatae are to be found in the British Museum. Very little 

 mycology is ever learned excepting from specimens, and the various exsic- 

 catae are a practical means, for all of the important species of Europe and 

 America are in these exsiccatae and a fair number of those of the tropics. 

 Unfortunately the value of these exsiccatae specimens is to a large meas- 

 ure invalidated by the fact that so large a proportion are misnamed. These 

 misnamed are of three kinds. 



1st. We have the synonyms, viz.; names given to species that already 

 have names. We feel quite tolerant of synonyms, for most of them 

 originate in good faith. A local worker with limited opportunity finds a 

 fungus he is unable to determine. He does the simplest thing possible. He 

 announces that he has discovered a "new species" and gives it a name. In 

 about one case out of four is it true, and in the other three cases his name 

 in time becomes a synonym. 



2nd. We have the misdetermined specimens of the exsiccatae. It is 

 unfortunately true that men publish exsiccatae to give information to others 

 and succeed largely in giving misinformation. So many specimens of even 

 the common species are mislabeled in the exsiccatae that as a whole no 

 dependence whatever can be placed on them. 



3rd. Juggled names. A name juggler is one who takes a plant with 

 a well-known and well-established name and changes it on some old, vague 

 alleged synonym, in many cases not true, and of no importance if it is true. 

 There is some excuse <lack of knowledge) for the makers of synonyms and 

 the distributors of misdetermined specimens, but there is not even this 

 excuse for a name-juggler. The process of looking up dates of old, alleged 

 synonyms, and guessing at the identity of the vague records of the past 

 is of little importance even historically. But to substitute for an unques- 

 tioned and settled name an alleged, doubtful synonym only leads to con- 

 fusion and has not even the merit of originality, for name-jugglers have 

 been the bane of mycology from the start. 



There are two kinds of jugglers. The generic juggler who discovers 

 every section to be a "new genus" and gives it a name, and those who juggle 

 the specific name. 



1 



UMYER3ITY OF CALIFORNIA 



AT LOS AKGELES 



