General Features 33 



Probably the ease with which the spores of the cup-fungus, 

 as well as fungi in general, can be blown about by the wind has 

 much to do with their dissemination over the surface of the 

 earth. From the observations made, it would seem that where 

 the substrata are essentially identical the most of the species 

 of this group will grow in any part of the world, without regard 

 to climate. It is possible, however, that some of the strictly 

 tropical species may be directly influenced by climate. 



21. Nomenclature 



In general the writer has attempted in the following treat- 

 ment to follow the rules of the American Code of Nomenclature, 

 which is based on the principle of priority. While the application 

 of the rules of any code will result in some temporary eruptions 

 in a group of this size, we feel that the application of the rule of 

 priority at least tends toward stability. The few radical changes 

 which have been made in the present work in order to conform 

 to rules have been divscussed in a preliminary paper, but some 

 of them perhaps should be dealt with a little more in detail here. 



There are those in the mycological world who are avowedly 

 opposed to the strict application of any code of nomenclature 

 on the ground that such application would result in change, as 

 of course it does in some cases. This small group of mycologists 

 proposes to follow "usage," without regard to priority, on the 

 plea that we would thereby avoid change of names. Now if 

 the application of the principle ot so-called usage would accom- 

 plish what is claimed for it, there might be some excuse for 

 following these suggestions. But the term "usage" is merely 

 "a snare and a delusion" as can be shown by an attempt to 

 apply this principle in the cup-fungi. 



Since there is no extensive monograph of the operculate cup- 

 fungi in America, there is naturally no well-established usage in 

 this country. Whether we follow usage or priority, we must 

 look largely to Europe for precedent. There have been several 

 outstanding figures in the study of Discomycetes of Europe, 

 to whom we may look for inspiration and information, of a 

 taxonomic nature, in the study of this group of fungi. Among 

 these are William Phillips, M. C. Cooke, and George Massee of 

 England; H. Rehm and G. Lindau of Germany; C. C. Gillet and 

 M. E. Boudier of France; and P. A. Saccardo of Italy. While 

 all of these have contributed much to our knowledge of the taxon- 



