1916] Gilkey: A Revision of the Tuherales of California 277 



II. MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUE 



Tlie collection assembled during the twenty-five years that Dr. 

 Ilarkness studied the fungi of the Pacific Coast is said to have aggre- 

 gated ten thousand species. Some of these were acquired by purchase 

 or exchange, but the most were native plants of California, the range 

 of territory covered extending from JMount Shasta on the north to 

 Fort Yuma on the south, and from the seashore to the eastern limits 

 of the Sierras (Harkness, 1880, p. 1). Of this collection the greater 

 part became the property of the California Academy of Sciences whose 

 headquarters were in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the herbarium 

 of the Academy was largely destroyed by the fire of 1906, the only 

 specimens of fungi saved being those designated as types of new 

 species, which were rescued with much difficulty and hardship by Miss 

 Alice Eastwood, curator of the herbarium. However, before this time, 

 but after the death of Dr. Harkness, the main collection of hypogaei 

 came into the possession of Leland Stanford Junior University, at 

 Palo Alto, so this portion escaped. Through the kindness of Pro- 

 fessor Le Roy Abraras, curator of the herbarium at that institution, 

 full facilities for the examination of the collection were enjoyed. Only 

 three types of the ascomycetous hypogaei are missing. These are not 

 noted on the list of numbers representing the fungi in the California 

 Academy herbarium saved from the fire — for which list I am indebted 

 to ]\Irs. Katherine Layne Brandegee of the University of California — 

 so it is probable that they are not now in existence. 



The Harkness collection consists of ' ' approximately three hundred 

 species," of which nearly one-third are ascomycetous. The specimens 

 are preserved in 95 to 100 per cent alcohol, in bottles, and are labeled, 

 usually, with both numbers and names, though in some cases neither 

 is present. While most of the specimens are Calif ornian, a few are 

 from European herbaria. No data whatever are to be found for the 

 unlabeled material, except a quotation from Dr. Gustav Eisen, the illus- 

 trator of the Harkness paper, who believed it to have been collected 

 after the publication of the latter. Of many species little material is 

 present, a number having only a portion of an ascocarp remaining. 



In addition to the specimens, there is a large numlxn- of slides in 

 the collection. Some of the sections were hand-eut and mounted in 

 glycerine, while tiic remainder, which were made by microtome, were 

 preserved in balsam. The latter, according to Dr. Eisen, were the 



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