PREFACE. 



THrRTT-riVE years ago one of the volumes of the " English Flora" 

 contained full descriptions of all the species then known of British 

 Fimgi. Prior to this several floras, and especially Mr. Samuel Gray's 

 " Natural An-angement" and Withering' s " Arrangement/' included 

 the fungi; but it was left to the Eev. M. J. Berkeley to collect the 

 materials, and eliminate from them, a Mycological Flora of the British 

 Islands. During the thirty-five years that have elapsed since the 

 appearance of the last complete Mycologic Flora, no attempt has been 

 made to revise it, to incorporate species since discovered, and to bring 

 it up to the standard of modern science. No apology, therefore, is 

 necessary for the present effort, since all will admit that the want of 

 such a manual has long been felt, and this work makes its appearance 

 under the advantage that it seeks to occupy a place which has long 

 been vacant. 

 . It was my intention at first to have added an introduction, treating 

 of the structure and aflfinities of the different orders and genera 

 included in the present volume, with an explanation of my own views 

 as to the classification adopted, but as the work proceeded it so far 

 exceeded the dimensions originally estimated, that it was found 

 impossible to do justice to this portion of the subject here, and the 

 " Introduction" has been postponed, in the hope that hereafter it may 

 appear as a separate voliune. It may suffice to state that, in the 

 face of the bewildering chaos of new genera which have of late been 

 proposed on the Continent, especially for Ascomycetous forms, I have 

 endeavoured to avoid, as much as possible, encumbering these pages 

 with a nomenclature often fanciful, seldom necessary, and which may, 

 at best, be regarded as transitional. It is hoped that such changes as 



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