34 ELIAS FRIES. 



which awakened a wish to study the Fungi. With the aid of 

 Liljehlad's ' Swedish Flora 'he learnt the next day the few genera 

 of Fungi then known ; hut the species were more difficult, for he 

 could not doubt that they were all described in that book. In the 

 year 1808, when Sweden was ravaged by unlucky wars and 

 wasting sickness, it became necessary to close the school at Wexio, 

 at which Fries studied. He therefore remained in the country and 

 began to describe all the Fungi he could find, and to distinguish 

 them by temjiorary names. Thus he had learnt to distinguish 

 three or four hundi-ed s^jecies before quitting the gymnasium in 

 1811, to go to the University of Lund. Although the nature of 

 the part of Sweden in which this town is situated is not at all so 

 attractive as that of the wooded and hilly part of Smaland, still it 

 seemed to him the Elj^sian fields because of the man}^ new plants 

 it ofi"ered to his observation. But it was in the library of the 

 university that he found his chief delight. Although there was 

 no specially mycological hterature to be found, it was his dearest 

 occupation to sit, every hour the library was ojDen, seeking in the 

 ' Flora Danica,' the works of Jacquin, and the engravings of 

 Buxbaum, the many species so well known to him before, but 

 without names. At this time there lived in Lund two distin- 

 guished followers of natural science, Eetzius and Agardh, who 

 showed him great kindness, and who put into his hands the 

 mycological works of Persoon and Albertini, the best then 

 existing. In 1812 Fries occupied himself with Hyj^odermicE 

 (L'stUaijinem, /Fxidiomycetes). The year 1813 w^as a very rainy one, 

 and consequently very profuse in Fungi. Fries, who was earnestly 

 studying for his degree in philoso^Dhy, was obhged to divide his 

 time between the Fungi and Homer, but neither was neglected, 

 and next year he passed his examination, and was nominated 

 Docens of Botany. He had now full leisure to direct all his 

 powers to the study of Fungi. He made a sojourn at Copenhagen 

 in order to study the richer mycological literature to be found 

 there. There he delivered to the prmter the first part of his 

 ' Observationes Mycologicse ' (1815), for which the harvest of 

 Fungi of 1813 had supplied the chief materials. In 1814 he 

 began, principally by the counsel of 01. Swartz, to write his 

 'Monographia Pyrenomycetum Suecia?,' which work he presented 

 in parts from 1816 to 1819 to the Academy of Sciences in Stock- 

 holm. Shortly before he had published the second volume of 

 his ' Observationes Mycologicae ' (1818). 



In this manner Fries began his mycological studies. But soon 

 he found that the method pursued till now in describing and 

 systematizing was not at all satisfactory, and therefore he com- 

 menced, in 1816, to work out a new system, and subject all the 

 Fimgi to a fresh investigation — a labour connected with the 

 greatest difficulties, both because the construction of the micro- 

 scope was at this time very imperfect, and because no good 

 method for the conservation of Fungi was known. This new 

 system was based upon a minute examination of the appearance of 

 the Fungi in different stages of their development, and of the 



