scientious "priorists" living. This very quality, indeed, has led 

 Bresadola into many illogical conclusions as to the names he uses, 

 and judging from Hurt's troubles with "Septobasidium pedicellatum," 

 he will meet the same difficulty. "Use," in my opinion, not "priority" 

 alone, is the natural law of all languages, and the man who holds to 

 the contrary is in the same position as the man who would refuse 

 to employ the word "December," because it is not now the tenth 

 month. 



Prof. Burt is a very careful, safe, conservative man, a thorough 

 scholar, a patient worker, a graduate of the best mycological college 

 in our country (Harvard), and he is working on the most difficult 

 problem existing in connection with American mycology. We have 

 always felt it to be most fortunate that a man of his character be- 

 came interested in this work, for he will undoubtedly place it on a 

 safe and permanent basis. And he is not only the first, but he is the 

 only man who knows, or for that matter, has ever known, anything 

 about resupinate Thelephoraceae in this country. 



POLYPORUS ANCEPS, FROM JAMES R. WEIR, MON- 

 TANA (Fig. 933). We take this in the sense as named by Mr. Weir, 

 for with him it is a com- 

 mon plant on hemlock, and .. 



I have never been able to _,, ^ . v 



decide a name for it. This 

 is a white, hard plant with 

 a "reddish tendency" (sec- 

 tion 84). I have always 

 doubted it being anceps, for 

 I noted no "reddish" change 

 on the type. But as it grows 



on hemlock, and answers well Fig. 933. 



the description, I think it 



best to take Peck's name in the sense of Weir. The most prominent char- 

 acter is the way it affects the host, the peculiar "rot" shown in our fig- 

 ure 934. W T e gave in Note 499 a synopsis of the similar and related spe- 

 cies, but they are very puzzling and as yet are not all straightened out. 



Fig. 934. 



655 



