iv PREFACE 



including North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, 

 Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, 

 and the northern portion of Florida; (3) the Rocky Mountain 

 region, including the remainder of the western United States 

 and Canada with the exception of states bordering on the 

 Pacific Ocean; (4) the far West, including California, Oregon, 

 Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska; and (5) tropical 

 North America, including Mexico, Central America, southern 

 Florida, the Bermudas, the West Indies, and all other islands 

 between North America and South America with the exception 

 of Trinidad. 



In all these regions, there is an abundance of work still to 

 be done before our knowledge of the polypores is complete, and 

 it is believed that the publication of a series of books treating the 

 species of each region separately will stimulate effort in this 

 direction. 



The terms here used to express the abundance of a species are 

 "rare" or "occasional," "rather frequent," "frequent," "rather 

 common," "common," "very common," and "extremely 

 common." For the sake of brevity, certain liberties have been 

 taken with the term "brown," especially in the keys, where it is 

 often used as a general term for some shade of yellowish-brown 

 or brown. In the same way, allowances must be made for the 

 term "throughout" when used to indicate occurrence, which 

 does not imply the actual presence of a given species on every 

 mountain top or every desert within the region. 



Our knowledge of the polypores of tropical North America 

 has been obtained chiefly through the large number of exploring 

 expeditions sent into this interesting region during the past 

 fifteen years by the New York Botanical Garden. 



W. A. MURRILL. 

 NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN. 

 March 15, 1915. 



