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Mycologia 
as the American. The habitat and distribution of the plants give 
confirmation to this view. Hydnofomes Henn. must then be 
regarded as a synonym of Echinodontiiim Ell. & Everh. 
Hydnophysa Clements is an unwarranted and a careless attempt 
to improve upon the name Hydnofomes Henn. It may be claimed 
that the change is in the interests of literary taste in dispensing 
with a hybrid name. If such be the ground for the proposed 
change, it seems rather far-fetched and pedantic ; for while such 
considerations doubtless should have weight and be heeded by an 
author in the coining of a new name, it is by no means a sufficient 
reason for disturbing an established system of nomenclature. 
The proposed change is further unwarranted since the name 
Hydnophysa does not have the same significance as Hydnofomes 
and the change does violence to the purpose of the author of the 
genus. It is evident that Hennings intended to express by his 
name a relationship between Hydnum and Pomes, and, under the 
circumstances, such relationship could not be better expressed by 
the name. Since Hydnophysa suggests no such connection, the 
change defeats Hennings’s purpose. A biologist ought to be the 
last to object to hybridism when it throws any light on the prob- 
lems of the relationship of living things. The mistake that Ellis 
made in referring the Swan specimen to Pomes confirms the 
appropriateness of Hennings’s name. 
The proposal of the name Hydnophysa was also made care- 
lessly and without sufficient investigation of the problem involved ; 
for, although on the same page the name Pchinodontium was 
noted by Clements and especially mentioned as included in 
Hydnum, there was a complete failure to perceive that it was 
generically identical with Hydnofomes. From which it is evident 
that a work claiming not to be critically taxonomic is no place for 
proposing important changes in nomenclature. 
Gloiodon P. a. Karsten, Medd. Soc. Faun, et El. 
Fenn. 5 : 28. 1879 
Sclerodon P. A. Karsten, Finlands Basidsv. 360. 1889. 
Leaia Banker, Mem. Torrey Club 12 : 175. 1906. 
A study of the European types concerned with this genus con- 
firms the conclusions of a former paper on the nomenclature of 
