PREFACE VH 



In the naming of organisms I have followed the usage of the orig- 

 inal author unless confusion is thereby introduced. A few excep- 

 tions to this rule have been made, e.g., in the use of Streptomyces 

 for the aerobic actinomycetes forming conidia in chains. 



Two important and interesting topics have been almost entirely 

 omitted: the genetics of fungi and the interactions of fungi with 

 other organisms in nature. Both of these subjects deserve more space 

 than could here be given to them, and the second — the ecology of 

 fungi — probably requires a type of conceptual approach different 

 from that of this book. 



Individual chapters have been read in manuscript by S. H. Hutner, 

 Frederick Kavanagh, Albert Kelner, Leonard Machlis, S. E. A. 

 McCallan, W. C. Snyder, and C. E. Yarwood. It is a pleasure to 

 acknowledge their advice and help. I am grateful, too, to the many 

 authors and publishers who have allowed me to use published mate- 

 rial, and to the staffs of the Olin Library of Wesleyan University, the 

 Mann Library of Cornell University, and the New York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station Library. 



A considerable part of the work embodied here was done during a 

 sabbatical leave spent as guest of the Department of Plant Pathology 

 of the University of California at Berkeley, to the members of which 

 I am greatly indebted. The Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University 

 generously provided support for this period. 



Jean Conn Cochrane has given invaluable assistance in all phases 

 of preparation of the manuscript, which without her help would have 

 been poorer in quality and later in appearance. 



Vincent W. Cochrane 

 October 1958 



