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XVI. On Two New Genera of Fungi. By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S. fyc. 



Read June 1, 1852. 



1HE illustrious mycologist, Elias Fries, on more than one occasion, expresses the far 

 greater pleasure that he has experienced in ascertaining with complete certainty a single 

 synonym of the earlier writers on Fungi, than in discovering many new species ; a senti- 

 ment which will meet a responsive echo in the approbation of most true lovers of science. 

 There is indeed a great satisfaction in clearing up a point hitherto obscure; in finding 

 that the pioneers of science, with all their disadvantages, were so far correct in their 

 observations, and therefore worthy of trust in other particulars ; the very subjects too are 

 often interesting in an historical point of view ; and not only so, but there is often much 

 valuable information to be derived from their mode of regarding matters respecting which, 

 for the most part, no scientific theories or prejudices existed, whatever other analogous 

 drawbacks there might be, insomuch that on many points really juster views were enter- 

 tained than by many of their successors. Such works as those of Micheli and Schmidel 

 will repay the most attentive study, and many a circumstance has from time to time been 

 brought forward as a new and important discovery, which they and others of their con- 

 temporaries had already accurately observed ; while, on the other hand, from a careless 

 inspection of their figures without due attention to the context, they have been made to 

 vouch for facts respecting which they had no knowledge. To take a single instance in 

 that branch of botany to which attention is more particularly called in the present memoir, 

 and to which it is proposed to add two new genera, either founded on forms observed and 

 described by the older botanists, or illustrated by matter furnished by them, but not 

 recognized by more modern writers on the subject, the true structure of the hymenium 

 of Agarics is accurately represented by Muller in Agaricus comatus, in an early figure of 

 the ' Flora Danica,' whereas the figure in which Micheli is supposed to have represented 

 that structure is meant to express something quite different, the simple circumstance of 

 the quaternate disposition of the spores in Agarics being the only correlative fact known 

 to that author, as appears from his text, which is usually too positive and luminous to 

 admit of much question. 



The objects to which the attention of the Society is now drawn are closely related to 

 two which are figured, the one by Battarra and the other by Bulliard, though it should 

 seem not absolutely identical. The first noticed shall be that which calls to mind a figure 

 in the well-known work of the Italian botanist on the Fungi growing in the neighbourhood 

 of Arimini, a work remarkable for its excellent illustrations and general faithfulness, and 

 which may frequently be consulted with profit at the present day. The first edition of 

 this work appeared in 1755, and a second edition was published in 1759, without however 

 any alteration in the matter. 



VOL. XXI. X 



