PREFACE. 



XlAVIXG undertaken the prefent Work, I 

 feel great fatisfaftion in the encouragement it 

 receives from the pubHc, which I fhall endea- 

 vour to continue to deferve. 



The Twelfth Number contains the promifed 

 Index, in which are included fome fynonyms 

 from different authors, many of them not quoted 

 in the defcriptions to the figures ; nor could I, 

 with confidence, have cited all of tliem at the 

 time thofe defcriptions were written, as I daily 

 acquire a better knowledge of the fpecies of 

 Fungi ; fo that I flatter myfelf with being able in 

 the end more perfeftly to diflinguifh them than 

 could at firft have been expefted. In this. 

 Nature feems ready to lend her afTiftance ; that 

 very hmplicity of flrufture which in many cafes 

 appears to ha\'c led authors into confufion, 

 being, one would think, more likely to make 

 this tribe of plants eafily underftood. Some of 

 them are cxa6f ly a year in their progrefs to ma- 

 turity ; yet their changes in the courfe of that 

 progrefs are very trifling, compared with thofe 

 we fee in (what are termed) perfect plants : fuch 

 flight changes however have given rife to many 

 fuppofed fpecies. Much more frequently there- 

 fore have varieties been defcribed as fuch, fo that 



