(iUIDB TO THE IJTERATURE FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF FUNdl 

 ~A I'RELIMINARY OUTLINE FOR STUDENTS AND OTHERS. 



EKNST A. BESSEY, 



Michigan Agricultural College. 



Our one great work for the ideiitilication of fiuigi i.s, it ahuost goes witlioul 

 saying, Saccardo's Sylloge Fiuigorum. In this ponderous work, written entirely 

 in Latin, one may expect to find described all species of fungi that have ever 

 been recognized and named. But the very vastness of the work (twenty-two 

 volumes up to date, including descriptions of over 66,000 species of fungi) 

 militates against its usefulness, especially for comparative beginners in the 

 study of fungi. Furthermore, such a work does not lay claim to be more 

 than a carefully supervised compilation. It is manifestly impossible to expect 

 the author to be able to know every one of the species included in the work, 

 and accordingly exclude those newly described forms that he judges to be 

 identical with species already described. It is true that he is able to do this 

 in many cases, but by far not wath all species described every year. He also 

 is enabled, because of his wide acquaintance with the field, to correct false 

 assignments of new species to genera, in which it is manifest that they do 

 not belong. The very fact, however, that in this work have been brought 

 together the descriptions of all know^n fungi has greatly stimulated the study 

 of these plants so that supplement after supplement has had to be issued to 

 include the species described since the first eight volumes have appeared. 

 As a result, one must wade through pages of descriptions in many different 

 A'olumes, carefully balancing this man's description, in which certain points 

 are emphasized and others neglected, with that man's description in which, 

 perhaps, the emphasis and neglect are just reversed. The result is all too 

 often a desperate seizing upon some one description that is not too far different 

 from the fungus in hand, and an unexpressed prayer that it may not be 

 ne«es.'<ary to repeat the performance soon. A still greater difficulty, however, 

 for many students is their very deficient training in T^atin. It is a sad fact 

 that many students now enter colleges and universities without having studied 

 even one hour of this language. To such, even the comparatively small vocabu- 

 lary and simple constructions of the family, generic and specific descriptions 

 of Saccardo are an unsurmountaI)le barrier. 



The necessary lack of critical discrimination .-is (o the species incorporated 

 ill tlic work also iiiaUcs Saccardo souu'wlial unsatisfactory. Furthermore, 

 until one is (luile familiar with the various groups of fungi, nnmy of them 

 are not easily understood without reference to illustrations. To be sure, 

 Saccardo lists carefully all such figures, but their absence in the work itself 



