A CORRECTION IN NOMENCLATURE 



Howard J. Banker 



In the second edition of the Species Plantarum in 1763, Lin- 

 naeus described a fungus which he called Hydnum parasiticum 

 as follows : " acaule arcuato-rugosum tomentosum. Habitat in 

 Europae arboribus." This appears to be the original publication 

 of the species and Linnaeus never furnished any more complete 

 account of the plant. It seems practically impossible from so 

 meager a characterization to identify the plant thus named. In 

 later editions of the Species Plantarum the name and descrip- 

 tion are continued unchanged. In 1769, a plant was figured in 

 Flora Danica pi. 46 which was supposed to be the Linnaean 

 species. The figure, however, fails to give any more definite 

 characters of the plant. In the same year Weigel quotes the 

 Linnaean species and appends a more elaborate description.* The 

 fact that he states that the plant described by him is at first gela- 

 tinous raises the question whether he really had the Linnaean 

 plant. In 1787, Willdenow described a plantf which he doubt- 

 fully referred to Hydnum parasiticum L. and the next year he 

 repudiated his determination by figuring and describing his plant 

 as a new species with the name Agaricus decipiens.X It seems 

 evident, therefore, that even the earlier botanists were more or 

 less in doubt as to the identity of the Linnaean plant. 



About 1800, Olof Swartz sent to Persoon a specimen from 

 Sweden which he afiirmed to be the true Hydnum parasiticum L. 

 This plant Persoon figured and fully described under the Lin- 

 naean name in his Icones et Descriptiones Fungorum 2 : 55. pi. 

 14, f. 2. 1800. The figure is so well executed that it leaves no 

 doubt as to the plant represented. Soon after this was published 

 Swartz wrote Persoon, according to the latter, that the plant was 

 not the Hydnum parasiticum of Linnaeus. Persoon now did a 



* Flora Pomerano-Rugica, 222. 1769.. 



t Florae Berolinensis Prodromus, 396. 1787. 



t Observationes Botanicae in Mag. fur die Bot. 12. pi. 2, /. a, b, c. 1788. 



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