BRITISH FUNGI 227 



won. A review of the work done can be most conveniently 

 discussed under three separate headings Systematic Mycology, 

 Morphology and Literature, and Plant Pathology, respectively. 



Systematic Mycology. 



Under the title British Fungi, four fascicles of dried and 

 well-prepared specimens, numbering in all 350 species, were 

 issued between 1836 and 1843. In those days exsiccatae were 

 not issued from a commercial standpoint, as is too frequently 

 the case at the present day, but represented the outcome 

 of careful investigation on the part of the author, hence 

 Berkeley's exsiccatae are at a premium at the present day. 



In 1828 Berkeley first corresponded with Sir W. J. Hooker 

 on matters dealing with cryptogams, and in one of his early 

 letters stated that he had devoted much time to the study of 

 fungi, more especially to the extensive genus Agaricus^ which at 

 that period included all the gill-bearing fungi. At this time, 

 Sir William was engaged in preparing the volumes dealing with 

 cryptogams, as supplementary to The English Flora of Sir 

 James Edward Smith, and approached Berkeley on the subject 

 of undertaking the section dealing with Agarics, in the volume 

 devoted to the fungi. Berkeley agreed to this arrangement, 

 and was finally induced to describe the whole of the fungi. 

 A footnote at the commencement of the volume by Sir W. J. 

 Hooker is as follows : 



" When the printing of the species of this, the 2nd Part of 

 the Class Cryptogamia, was commenced, I thought myself highly 

 fortunate to have obtained the assistance of my valued friend, 

 the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, in preparing the first Tribe, Pileati. 

 I have now to express my cordial acknowledgements (in which 

 I am satisfied I shall be joined by every Botanist in the country) 

 to that gentleman for having kindly undertaken to prepare the 

 whole of this vast family for the press : and it is certain that the 

 task could not have fallen into better hands." 



The volume contains detailed descriptions of all British 

 fungi known at the time, amounting to 1360 species, included in 

 155 genera, the great majority of which had been studied by 



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