246 A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



letin of the Torrey Botanical Club; Phytopathology; Botanical Magazine, Tokyo; 

 Canadian Journal of Research; Tijdschrift over Plant enziekt en; Zeitschrift filr 

 Pflanzenkrankheiten; Sve7isk Botanisk Tidskrift; and the annual transactions 

 and bulletins of scores of scientific societies, academies, and other institutions. 

 Possibly the earliest periodical devoted solely to mycology was Michelia, founded 

 by Saccardo in 1876 and terminated in 1882. The Journal of Mycology was 

 founded in 1886 and continued with some interruptions for fourteen volumes, 

 ending in 1908. Mycologia began in 1909 and still continues actively. Transac- 

 tions of the British Mycological Society began about 1916, the Review of Applied 

 Mycology in 1922, the Bulletin Trimestriel de la Societe Mycologique de France, 

 in 1895. Revue Mycologique began in 1879 and came to an end fifteen or twenty 

 years later. Revue de Mycologie began in 1936. In Germany Mycologisches Cen- 

 tralhlatt ran from 1912 to 1915, being then a casualty of World War I. An7iales 

 Mycologici, 1903 to 1941, was a casualty of World War II, as was Zeitschrift 

 filr Pilzkunde, founded in 1921. Sydowia was founded in 1947 as a sort of con- 

 tinuation of Annales Mycologici. In Sweden Friesia ran for several years until 

 the last war. 



Classification Systems 



The classification of fungi has naturally undergone great changes in the past 

 one hundred years, corresponding with the increased knowledge of their struc- 

 tures and life histories, on the one hand, and with the eventual general acceptance 

 by mycologists of the hypothesis of evolution. Before the idea of evolution had 

 gained acceptance, the degrees of relationships of plants (and animals) were 

 based upon the greater or smaller degrees of similarity between the organisms 

 that were being studied. The idea of "types" was proposed. These must not be 

 confused with the nomenclatorial types of species, genera, families, etc., whose 

 recognition is necessary to permit the application of the valid names upon these 

 groups. In the older use of the term a "type" was an idealized organism, a sort 

 of composite being, including the main characters of a large group of sup- 

 posedly related plants or animals. Thus Ranunculus was the type of a whole 

 group of Ranunculaceae, Magnoliaceae, Annonaceae, Berberidaceae, etc. These 

 were all considered as having been created with va rious modifications of the type 

 {Ranunculus in this case) — the greater the modifications, the less the degree of 

 relationship. The idea was comparable to the work of an architect who draws 

 a basic plan for a house and then modifies it in many ways so that, although 

 the houses are basically similar, each one differs in a few or many particulars 

 from the others. So the Creator was supposed to have formed his generalized 

 type for a group of plants (or animals) and then, on the day of creation, to 

 have modified this in some degree. 



It must be confessed that we who believe in evolution have had to take on 

 some of the ideas of the earlier systematists. They measured the strength of 

 what they called "relationship" by the degree of similarity, without accepting 

 the idea of genetic kinshi]). We, too, use the degree of similarity to indicate 

 the probable (or ])ossible) path of the evolutionarj^ change and so to indicate 

 the degree of "blood relationslii])." As more fungi are studied and their struc- 

 tures and life histories determined, we have become able to suggest what may 



