GASTEROMYCETES 229 



emphasized the fact that the fungi are more cosmopolitan than 

 any other known group of plants, and that their abundance at 

 any place during a given period was almost entirely dependent 

 on conditions favouring the development of the higher forms of 

 plant life, fungi only following in the wake of such, and never 

 posing as pioneers, on account of the nature of their food. 

 Amongst the numerous novel types of extra-European fungi 

 described by Berkeley, it is somewhat difficult to indicate briefly 

 even a few of the most striking forms. Perhaps his genus 

 Broomeia stands out pre-eminent. It belongs to the puffball 

 group of fungi, and is unique in that family the Gasteromy- 

 cetaceae in having numerous individuals springing from, and 

 imbedded in a common sterile base or stroma. It is a native of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. The following is Berkeley's dedication 

 of this genus to his friend and co-worker, C. E. Broome, M.A., 

 of Bath. " Nomen dedi in honorem amicissimi, C. E. Broome, 

 armigeri, Tuberacearum Anglicarum accuratissimi indagatoris, 

 cujus pene solius laboribus extant hodie viginti species indigenae 

 fungorum hypogaeorum." Broomeia congregata Berk., is de- 

 scribed and figured in Hooker's London Journal of Botany, 1844. 

 Certain club-shaped fungi parasitic on caterpillars, belonging to 

 the genus Cordyceps, occurring on buried caterpillars in New 

 Zealand, are the giants of their tribe, measuring up to eighteen 

 inches in length. Finally, Berkeley first introduced to our 

 notice many of those quaint fungi belonging to the group 

 including our well known "stinkhorn" Phallus impudicus L. 

 and cleared up many points in their structure previously un- 

 known. Fries, the most distinguished mycologist of his time, 

 writes as follows in his Preface to Hymenomycetes Europaei\ 

 " Desideratissima vero Synopsis Hymenomycetum extra-euro- 

 pearum, qualem solus praestere valebit Rev. Berkeley." 



Notwithstanding Berkeley's researches on exotic fungi, a 

 task in itself too comprehensive for most men to grapple with, he 

 continued to study the British fungi, and, mostly in collaboration 

 with his friend, Mr C. E. Broome, published a long series of 

 articles in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, from 

 1837 down to the year 1883. In these articles 2027 species of 

 fungi are enumerated, mostly new, or species new to Britain, 



