228 MILES JOSEPH BERKELEY 



the author in a living condition, and also compared with 

 specimens contained in various exsiccatae and with the very ex- 

 tensive collection owned by Sir W. J. Hooker. The appearance 

 of this book at once placed Berkeley in the front rank of 

 Mycologists, and it was universally admitted as the most com- 

 plete Mycologic Flora of any country extant ; and furthermore, 

 so far as accurate information, and a true sense of the conception 

 of species are concerned, the same statement holds good at the 

 present day. At this date our knowledge of extra-European 

 fungi was almost nil, with the exception of a few woody cosmo- 

 politan species collected by various travellers, more as matters 

 of curiosity than for the advancement of our knowledge of the 

 fungus-flora of the world. 



Opportunity alone was required by Berkeley, and such 

 opportunity was readily afforded by Sir W. J. Hooker, who 

 placed unreservedly in Berkeley's hands the various collections 

 of exotic fungi received at Kew from time to time. This 

 practice was continued by the two succeeding Directors at Kew, 

 Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and Sir William Thiselton-Dyer. 

 Such unrivalled opportunities were utilised to the fullest extent 

 by Berkeley, who soon manifested by his treatment of the 

 material placed in his hands a thorough grasp of the subject, 

 and for nearly half a century practically all collections of exotic 

 fungi passed through Berkeley's hands. During this period 

 6000 new species were described, and in numerous instances 

 illustrated, including many new genera from all parts of the 

 world, arctic, antarctic, tropical and temperate. Botanists were 

 now enabled, for the first time, to grasp the true significance of 

 the fungus-flora of the world, which numerically ranks next to 

 Phanerogams, and which was shown to exercise an influence on 

 life on the globe in general, not realised before Berkeley's time. 

 The better known European genera of fungi, many of which 

 appeared to be sharply defined, and by some mycologists con- 

 sidered to be of ordinal importance, could now be estimated at 

 their true value and relegated to their true position in the 

 scheme of classification rendered possible by a good knowledge 

 of the range of structure presented by the fungi of the world at 

 large. As regards geographical distribution, Berkeley repeatedly 



