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GUIDE TO THE LITERATURE FOR THE 

 IDENTIFICATION OF FUNGI 



THE vast number of fungi makes a knowledge of even a considerable 

 part of the species beyond the ability of all but a few specialists. To 

 be able to identify a given specimen requires that the necessary literature 

 be available. Before 1880 the great Italian mycologist, P. A. Saccardo, 

 began to work on a compilation of all species of fungi described up to that 

 time. These descriptions were brought together in a compendious work 

 entitled "Sylloge Fungorum," the first volume of which appeared in 1882. 

 The descriptions, in Latin, were arranged in accordance with the system- 

 atic classification of fungi then recognized by the author. He completed 

 the work with Volume 8 in 1889, but in the meantime, such was the 

 stimulus afforded by this great work bringing together in one place de- 

 scriptions of all known species of fungi, that thousands of additional species 

 had been recognized and described. Thus it became necessary to pubhsh 

 supplementary volumes, the last of which. Volume 25, appeared in 1931. 

 For many years species of fungi have been described at the rate of 1500 to 

 2500 species a year. Thus it is inevitable that such a work must be from 

 two to five years behindhand. A further difficulty is the language of the 

 description, Latin, a knowledge of which is unfortunately all too meager 

 among the later generation of botanists. Furthermore the lack of illustra- 

 tions and the necessary scattering of the descriptions among the original 

 volumes and the many supplements make the work difficult to use. 

 Besides this, the necessary high cost precludes its purchase by most 

 botanists so that they must depend upon copies owned by libraries. 



To obviate these difficulties local fungus floras have been issued in 

 various countries or even subdivisions of countries. These pubhcations 

 are usually in the language of the country and are furthermore smaller, 

 inasmuch as only the species occurring in the limited areas concerned are 

 included. 



Still another type of publication is the monograph, or intensive study 



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