Lloyd Mycological Writings V3.pdf - MykoWeb

This is a widely distributed plant and occurs in most warm countries of
the world. Like all widely distributed plants it varies, and it is not practicable
to maintain all the specific names that have been given to it. As to pore size
those with the smallest pores were named Hexagona pulchella (Fig. 305),
then the type size (Fig. 306) and the largest size (Fig. 307) were called
Hexagona polygramma. With hardly two collections with exactly the same
sized pores, it is difficult to maintain these "species." And yet the pore sizes
have some value for they are usually uniform in specimens of the same collection.
They also vary as to color, and particularly in the development of
a glaucous pore covering. Some collections have no sign of it, others are
partially glaucous, and others strongly glaucous. Hexagona cervino-plumbea
is only a glaucous form.
Fig. 305. Fig. 306
Comparative pore sizes. Fig. 305, pulchella. Fig. 306, tennis (type).
Fig 307
- 37- polygramma.
History. The first specimen recorded was brought by Humboldt from
South America and is still preserved in Hooker's herbarium. It was published
by Hooker as Boletus tenuis in Kunth Synopsis (1822) and in the preceding
paragraph an anomaly of the same species as Boletus reticulatus. 23 However,
this was not the first specimen to reach Europe, for it is found in the Linnaean
herbarium with no clue to its source. It is labeled "Boletus favus, Linn.," an
obvious error as pointed out first by Klotzsch, then by Berkeley, and very
recently by Mr. Murrill. 24 Hexagona tenuis is a very common species in many
23 As this was published at a "previous date," according to Kuntze's method of reckoning
dates, it was necessary to find another species called reticulatus to put forth as a reason
for not taking the name. This was not a Hexagona, but that was a minor matter compared
to the importance of Hooker having published reticulatus in a previous paragraph to
tenuis in the same book. It was Klotzsch who first recognized that reticulatus was only an
altered condition of tenuis, and he so indorsed it on the label, from whence was obtained the
information that was dilated upon at length recently, forgetting to mention that it had all
been published in full by both Klotzsch and Berkeley many years ago.
24 "Im Linne'schen Herbarium, Boletus favus' ist Polyporus tenuis, Hooker." Klotzsch,
1832.
"Hexagona tenuis is marked in the Linnaean herbarium Boletus favus, but not by Linnaeus,
with whose description it does not correspond. The name is evidently not authoritative."
Berkeley, 1842.
"This species is found in the Linnaean herbarium marked Boletus favus, but not by Linnaeus,
nor with his sanction." Murrill, 1905.
Had Mr. Murrill, instead of copying Berkeley, done a little investigating in the Linnaean
herbarium he would have found that "this species" was named by Dickson many years after
Linnaeus died, and under the circumstances he would have had considerable trouble in obtaining
Linnaeus' "sanction."
24