Banker: A Correction in Nomenclature 9 



had never been found again and expressed serious doubt as to 

 its existence.* However, the plant does exist and is a good 

 species. In 1887, Underwood and Cook found specimens in cen- 

 tral New York which were correctly determined by C. H. Peck as 

 H. stratosum Berk., and again Underwood found a specimen of 

 the same species in Indiana in 1891. So far as the writer can 

 determine, these three collections are the only ones made of this 

 species in the world. 



In 1904, the writer, searching through the vast accumulation 

 of the Ellis collection at the New York Botanical Garden, dis- 

 covered a specimen which he recognized as having the funda- 

 mental characters of H. stratosum Berk., but it was distinctly 

 pileate. This specimen was collected by Ellis as early as 1855, 

 and had been submitted to Ravenel, who replied new and very 

 curious." The plants, however, had never been described, prob- 

 ably because the material was scanty. Later specimens having 

 the branched character greatly obscured by a more compact 

 pileus were referred by Ellis to H. strigosiim Sw. It was the 

 writer's fortune the next summer after seeing these specimens 

 to find a fine growth of the plant on an old stump in a deep, 

 moist hollow at Schaghticoke, N. Y., where an abundance of 

 fresh material was obtained. f The possibility of the plant's 

 being H. strigosum Sw. was considered, but authentic material 

 of Swartz's plant could not be obtained, and at that time a copy 

 of Persoon's paper, Icones et Descriptiones Fungorum, was not 

 accessible. The failure of the European botanists to emphasize 

 the most unique feature of the plant and especially Berkeley's 

 comment on that feature led the author to believe that the plant 

 represented a distinct species. Moreover, the unusual character 

 seemed to warrant the segregation of this and Berkeley's species 

 as a separate genus. The plant was, therefore, described and 

 named Leaia piper at a."^ 



Recently, among some material received from Dr. Lars Romell, 

 of Sweden, were found a few specimens of what is there con- 



* Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist. lO : 9. 1887. 



t This old stump has continued to furnish a crop of the sporophores every 

 year since, this being the sixth consecutive season that they have been 

 observed. 



$ Mem. Torrey Club 12: 175. 1906. 



