116 C. H. Kauffinan - 



In order to take complete notes and obtain the photographs, 

 httle time was left for longer excursions, and in any case, a 

 small area well covered is likely to yield a high percentage of the 

 possibilities of a larger area. 



Aside from collections of parasite fungi, our knowledge of 

 Oregon fungi in the past has been brought about in three ways. 

 Occasionally a local amateur sent specimens to Dr. Peck at 

 Albany, Professor Atkinson at Cornell University or to Dr. 

 Burt at St. Louis. In this way certain basidiomycetes and rarely 

 species of the other groups received names; the more common 

 fungi of interest to forest pathology were also occasionally 

 gathered and studied by the pathologists at Washington or 

 elsewhere. Secondly, Dr. Murrill of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, on an exploring expedition for material for the North 

 American Flora, gathered a considerable number of Oregon fungi 

 which he later described and named. The latest additions to the 

 flora of the State were compiled by Zeller (21) and it is to be 

 hoped that this author will find opportunity to continue his 

 research in this, an almost unstudied part of our country. 



Two mycological features impress an eastern mycologist when 

 he enters the Pacific states west of the Cascade Range. In the 

 first place, many species, if one is at all familiar with northern 

 European plants, are found to be old Friesian species. In the 

 second place he is astonished — nay, somewhat alarmed at his 

 own ignorance — to find so many that appear to be undescribed. 

 Such meager information as we have of that fatal trip to the 

 state of Washington, by the late Professor Atkinson, indicates 

 that he, too, was impressed by the multitude of new forms, and 

 his anxiety to waste no second in this fascinating country is 

 believed to have lured him to overtax his strength and to over- 

 look the signs of physical exhaustion. 



It has been the author's policy to refrain as much as possible 

 from the business of describing species. During 1915, with two 

 assistants, the writer spent two months in the mountains of 

 Washington, and obtained a large number of (new) species. After 

 ten years of contemplation about a considerable number of 

 forms then seen, and in frequent cases again collected in 1922, it 



