22 JOURNAL OF THE 



more in number, not one has an identical counterpart in any Euro- 

 pean species; that not more than one of the latter appears to have 

 become naturalized in America; and that while Europe possesses 

 about twenty species of the interesting genus, America has, as above 

 stated, already numbered thirty and probably may yet add others 

 from future explorations of her extensive northern regions. 



In his descriptions of new American species of the genus Spherise, 

 contained in the fifth volume of the Journal of the Academy, von 

 Schweinitz states that of the 528 species which Dr. Fries describe, 

 330 had been observed by himself in America, and that besides what 

 Fries had incorporated in his general abridgement, the new species 

 amounted to 112, making the whole number then known 640; that 

 the whole number of the American fungi, then observed (1825), fell 

 little short of 2,000. He adds, "I am fully persuaded as many more 

 remain undiscovered. Our immense forests, humid climate and va- 

 riety of high rank vegetable productions, may well warrant this con- 

 clusion." 



In this paper he describes twenty new species of American Sphe- 

 rise, respecting which, he remarks, that very few peculiar to America, 

 spring directly from the soil, that is, from vegetable mould — for 

 none, in fact, spring solely. from 7'ocks or their unvegetalized debris. 

 Nearly all the fungi peculiar to America are parasitic, and this, con- 

 sidering the vast number of peculiar plants and trees of the higher 

 orders, found in our country, may still account for the almost in- 

 credible multitude of fung<Dus forms, belonging exclusively to this 

 continent. 



His last publication contains the names of 3,098 species of North 

 American fungi, of which more than 1,200 are the fruits of his 

 own labors, embracing of course the species previously described 

 in his paper on the Spherise and those included in his Car- 

 olina Synopsis. If to these we add those plants described in his 

 other works, we have an aggregate of nearly 1,400 new spe- 

 cies added to the amount of botanical science by the talents and in- 

 dustry of a single individual; a number constituting no contempti- 

 ble portion of the whole amount of human knowledge on this sub- 

 ject at the time. 



At the decease of von Schweinitz the whole of his rich collection 

 passed, by bequest, into the possession of the Philadelphia Academy 

 of Natural Sciences. Independent of the fungi and other crypto- 

 gamous plants, the herbarium thus bequeathed to the Academy con- 

 tained (1835) about twenty-three thousand species, either collected 

 by von Schweinitz himself or procured by him through the agency 



