CHAPTER XI 



THE GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF AMERICAN FUNGI 



As will be seen in the summary given below, too little is known 

 of the distribution of our fungi to base even the most simple con- 

 clusions. Of the eight thousand or more species reported from 

 America, probably one-half are known from a single collection or 

 from the single station in which they were first discovered. Except 

 in parts of New England, New York, New Jersey, Nebraska, and 

 Kansas, no portions of the country have been systematicallystudied 

 with a view of determining the extent of their fungus flora. Our 

 knowledge of distribution is therefore based largely on the work 

 of local collectors who have made their observations for the most 

 part in the immediate vicinity of their homes, and we shall try to 

 indicate under the separate states the nature and extent of the 

 collections that have thus been made and the published local lists 

 that have been prepared by the several workers. In order to 

 facilitate reference, the states and territories are arranged alpha- 

 betically, and afterwards a brief account of the fungus flora of the 

 remaining portions of North America is added, since our geo- 

 graphic boundaries by no means limit floral or fungal areas. 

 While the study of the fungi of this country commenced in the 

 Carolinas, the flora of the South, outside of those two states and 

 Alabama, is less generally known than that of the North, "^ while 

 the region of the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the 

 great Southwest is known least of all, 



Alabama. 

 Early collections in this state were made by Beaumont and 

 Peters. Some of the material collected by the latter was distrib- 

 uted by Ravenel in his Fungi Caroljniani exsiccati and Peters' 

 own collection is at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. 

 Later collections were made by Atkinson, B. M. Duggar, Earle, 



* Cf. an article by the writer in Garden and Forest, g : 263, 264. 

 1896. 



16S 



