2 M. C. Montagne's Organographic and Physiologic 



announced by Micheli, that the sporidia of Agarics and 

 Boleti are naked or exogenous^ but he was the first to con- 

 jecture that these organs, which the illustrious Florentine 

 regarded as destined simply to keep the gills separate, were 

 in fact equivalent to the stamens of higher plants. The very 

 limited number of species known at that time did not require 

 a great degree of perfection in the mode of classification. 



But mycology soon increased to such an extent as to re- 

 quire some one to arrange its riches, and render them easily 

 accessible. Persoon, a man of sound judgement and great 

 talent for observation, accomplished with success the arduous 

 task, in publishing in 1801 his excellent Synopsis, entitled by 

 Fries 'opus aureum,^ in which are arranged with pecuUar 

 tact all the species of Fungi then known. Link, in his new 

 arrangement of the Gymnomycetes, and Nees von Esenbeck, in 

 his ' System der Pilzen und Schwamme,' made valuable con- 

 tributions to systematic mycology. Fries, the last in point 

 of time, but in my opinion the greatest of all, who has passed 

 half his life in the midst of forests, tracing the different phases 

 of evolution of these frequently ephemeral productions. Fries, 

 the worthy successor of Linnaeus, has also made various and 

 important emendations of the natural method of the illus- 

 trious Nees von Esenbeck. If he is not altogether irreproach- 

 able, especially as regards details of intimate structure, which 

 demand imperatively the aid of good microscopes, and con- 

 siderable skill in their use, not to mention the fact, that when 

 his system was published the modern improvements had not 

 been made, what mycologist will dare to compete with him 

 in loftiness of conception, immense learning, and especially 

 in that genius which all his works exhibit, but more pecu- 

 liarly his arrangement of the genus Agaricus, in the ' Systema 

 Mycologicum }' an arrangement perhaps more philosophic, 

 certainly more calculated to lead to the determination of the 

 species of this difficult genus, than the new method adopted 

 by him in the ' Epicrisis.^ 



As it is not my intention to give a history of mycology, I 

 must confine myself to a few words. I cannot therefore re- 

 view the works of those who have contributed to its progress 

 by local floras, monographs, or organographic, physiologic, 

 or medical remarks on Fungi. To enable the student, how- 

 ever, to have recourse to the fountain-head, and to consult 

 the different materials scattered in scientific journals, or par- 

 ticular treatises which have appeared since the time of Persoon, 

 I shall give as complete a list as possible of the most import- 

 ant works relating to this interesting class, reserving to 

 myself the power of showing, in the general remarks which 



