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TYPE STUDIES IN THE HYDNACEAE^— 

 I. THE GENUS MANINA 



Howard J. Banker 



The segregation of fungal forms proposed under the generic 

 name Manina was first established with practically its present 

 conception and limitations by Scopoli in 1772 in a work entitled 

 Dissertationes ad scientiam naturalem pertinentes." This work 

 was a small treatise covering, as its title implies, a wide range 

 of subjects and was in fact only part of a still wider ranging 

 series of papers. The greater part of the work is devoted to 

 subjects in mineralogy, but it also contains a short paper en- 

 titled " Plantae subterraneae descriptae et delineatae." This 

 latter paper is often cited by the older mycologists but always 

 simply as " Plantae subterraneae," which as we see is part of a 

 subtitle, and the incomplete citation has made it difficult to locate 

 the original paper. The work in which it appears is rare and a 

 copy was found only in the library of the British Museum. Al- 

 though the work is obscure and somewhat inaccessible at present, 

 it appears to have been well known to the older mycologists and is 

 of special interest to us because of its containing one of the ear- 

 liest truly natural segregations out of that assemblage of plants 

 known today as the Hydnaceae. 



The name Manina, diminutive from the Italian Mano, a hand, 

 was first proposed by Adanson in the " Families des Plantes " 2 : 

 5. 1763. Adanson published the name citing in connection 

 therewith coralloides Micheli PL 88. f. 2 and 6!' 



Micheli's genus as shown both by his description and figures 

 was undoubtedly the branched forms of our more modern genus 

 Clavaria. Adanson's genus, therefore, if it were to be recognized, 

 would properly belong to the family of the Clavariaceae, but the 

 genus was not established according to the code here followed. 



Scopoli took up Adanson's name and republished it in his 



^ Investigation prosecuted with the aid of a grant from the Esther Herr- 

 man Research Fund of the New York Academy of Science. 



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