MODERN HISTORY OF FUNGI S 



The next landmark in progress was Linnaeus' Species Flanta- 

 rum, published in 1753. This work is mentioned, not because it 

 contributed to a better understanding of fungi, but because it 

 established the binomial system, whereby each plant was given a 

 generic and a specific name. Linnaeus assembled the then- 

 described fungi under the Class Cryptogamia Fungi. 



Modern history of fungi. After Linnaeus' Species Plantanmt 

 there occurred a period, which may be said to extend to the 

 present day, in which mycology was mainly concerned with 

 the collection and description of fungi. Although the larger, 

 more conspicuous fungi received major attention at first, the 

 microscope was early used to determine morphologic charac- 

 teristics not discernible to the unaided eye. Specimens were 

 preserved, exchanged, and assembled in herbaria. As a result of 

 these practices some workers conducted monographic studies of 

 certain groups, but unfortunately their knowledge of fungi was 

 restricted too closely to those found in herbaria. Such students, 

 as a consequence of this monastic seclusion, possessed little 

 knowledge of the habitats, life histories, or range of variation of 

 fungi, and therefore they described many new genera and species 

 on the basis of minor, inconsequential differences. 



A few of the older, more important works of this period may 

 be mentioned. Of these, Bulliard's Champignons de France 

 (1791) is outstanding. It contains descriptions and accurate 

 drawings of many of the microfungi, especially Discomycetes, 

 Pyrenomycetes, Mucorales, and Mycetozoa. There followed 

 the taxonomic treatises of Persoon, his Synopsis Methodica Fiin- 

 gorum, in 1801, and his comprehensive Mycologia Europaea, a 

 three-volume work that appeared between 1822 and 1828. He 

 divided the fungi into 2 classes, 6 orders and 71 genera and was 

 the first to establish a usable system for the classification of fungi. 

 Probably the fundamental contribution of all time to my- 

 cologic knowledge is Elias Fries's Systevia Mycologicum, con- 

 sisting of three volumes published between 1821 and 1832. The 

 Sy sterna is the basis of our present-day system of classification 

 and constitutes the starting point of classification of many major 

 groups of fungi. 



At the same time that Fries, working in Sweden, was laying 

 the foundation for the classification of fungi, pioneer work in 

 North America was being carried out by de Schweinitz, who 



