I am not looking for "novelties." I should much prefer the old 

 species, but I can not help if I get plants that I do not know. There 

 are more foreign plants come to me 'every few months than Fries got 

 during his life. Naturally in these quantities, and from uncollected 

 regions, there are a number that I can not name. The real study of 

 Mycology is the classification, distribution and relative abundance 

 of the species. "New species" are an incidental part of this work, but 

 there are very few "new species" now that are at all common. They 

 are the rarer local plants. In puff balls, we were not troubled with 

 many "new species." During six years spent on the work, we did 

 not propose one a year. But the polypores are either more variable, 

 so that we can not always recognize the old species, or the species 

 are more numerous. We get an embarrassingly large number for 

 which we do not have names. 



We sometimes get letters from correspondents regretting that 

 they have probably not sent any novelties. We are more glad to 

 get the "old species" than we are those we can not name. The more 

 we handle specimens the better w r e learn the species, and not infre- 

 quently something "new" develops about "old" species. We do not 

 deny that we are much gratified to receive such striking novelties as 

 Sebacina Amesii from F. H. Ames, New York, Paulia resinacea from 

 J. T. Paul, Australia, Mesophellia castanea and Diploderma insolitum 

 from C. C. Brittlebank, Australia, Arachnion Scleroderma and 

 Arachnion giganteum from Miss A. V. Duthie, South Africa, Pyren- 

 opolyporus Hunteri from F. H. Hunter, Tropical Africa, etc. But 

 none the less are we pleased to receive the species that have been 

 named, but which were imperfectly known, such as Cordyceps sobo- 

 lifera from S. Kawamura, Japan, Hypoxylon cerebrinum from J. B. 

 Hart, Trinidad, Ganodermus umbraculus from J. Gossweiler, Africa, 

 Seismosarca hydrophora from J. B. Cleland, Australia, Daldinia 

 angolensis from T. Hunter, Tropical Africa, etc. Rarely a collection 

 comes to hand that we do not find something of interest, but it is by 

 no means the "novelties" that are of the most interest. 



RARE OR INTERESTING PLANTS RECEIVED 

 FROM CORRESPONDENTS 



POLYPORUS (AMAURODERMUS) SALEBROSUS. FROM 

 W. SMALL, AFRICA. This was published in 1912, Letter 42, 

 specimen from Hyac Vanderyst, Congo Beige. It is the second col- 

 lection received, and is a much better collection than the types. The 

 species of the section Amaurodermus are rare and most of them are 

 known only from the type collections. We are therefore much inter- 

 ested whenever we receive one. 



Polyporus salebrosus, as shown by this fine collection, varies 

 from an inch to four inches in diameter, with a slender stem from 

 6 to 8 inches. The stem which has a dull surface is deep rooting (4 

 inches in one specimen), and probably proceeds from a rhizome. I 

 have often thought that the earth-growing species of tropical Amau- 

 rodermus and Ganodermus proceed from rhizomes, but it has never 



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