PREFACE 



A scientific friend learning of my enthusiasm for mycology promptly 

 issued a quo warranto. A sufficient answer is that my special calling in the 

 field of medicine is in reality allied today in one way or another with practically 

 all the sciences, except astronomy where a divorce went into effect when 

 astrology was laid upon her deatli-bed. It is one of the chief glories of 

 medicine that she, herself, has for generations been the open sesame to all 

 the natural sciences. In mycology, however, I confess that medical investigators 

 in this country are but a handful, including such honored names as Ezra 

 Michener of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, William Herbst of Trexlertown, 

 Pennsj-lvania, Jacob R. Weist of Kichmond, Indiana, C. E. Fairman of 

 Lj-ndonville, New York, George Fischer of Detroit, Michigan, and greatest 

 of all, W. G. Farlow of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who, however, never 

 practiced. By curious contrast, a larger number of the clergy have labored 

 in this as in so many other fields of science ; among the outstanding names at 

 home and abroad in mycology are M. J. Berkeley, John Stevenson, Canon 

 Du Port, J. C. Schaeffer, F. Theissen, J. Eick, C. Torrend, G. Bresadola, 

 L. D. de Schweinitz, M. A. Curtis, Adalbert Ricken, and E. M. Fries. My 

 interest in mycology is furthermore a graft onto a dilettante interest in the 

 phanerogams, beginning in 1876 with my classmate, Dr. J. P. Crozier Griffith 

 at Upland, near old Chester, Pennsylvania, and continuing under the friendly 

 supervision of that veteran, the late James T. Eothrock. While at the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, I came into close touch with 

 John H. Redfield and Thomas Meehan in botany, as well as Joseph Leidy, 

 my teacher, at a time when my greatest interest lay in the field of herpetology, — 

 an interest fostered by Edward D. Cope whom I came to know intimately in 

 his home. W. S. W. Euschenberger was then president and George Tryou 

 was busy with his vast shell collection and numerous associated publications. 

 I well recall in 1879 our youthful enthusiasm over John Ryder's discovery 

 of a new pauropus in Fairmount Park and the impression made upon us by 

 Leidy's remark that he would rather have found that pauropus than a gold 

 mine. Henry Chapman and Andrew Parker were then Joseph Leidy's 

 promising pupils, and Spencer Trotter, one of our juvenile group, was deep 



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