315 



January 6, 1858. 



The President in the Chair. 



Mr. Charles J. Sprague read the following paper, enti- 

 tled, 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEW ENGLAND MYCOLOGT. 



In the Proceedings of the Society, March 5, 1856, is a list of 

 Fungi collected in this vicinity by Mr. Denis Murray and my- 

 self. It was prepared as a commencement of an enumeration of 

 the Fungi of New England, of which there is no authentic list 

 in existence. The collections heretofore made have been chiefly 

 incidental, as no botanist has devoted his special study to the 

 Mycology of this region ; and the published accounts of such 

 species as have been collected are not easily obtained. 



Since the publication of the list referred to, I have continued 

 to devote what leisure I could spare to this neglected study, and 

 have now some hundreds of species to add to ray former list. 

 Mr. Murray has contributed a large proportion of them, and de- 

 serves great credit for his indefatigable prosecution of this inter- 

 esting pursuit. 



The plants have all passed thi'ough Dr. Curtis's hands, and the 

 new species have been named by him and the Rev. Mr. Berkeley 

 together. I have incorporated in the list the names of several 

 species, communicated to me by Dr. Curtis, which were collected 

 by Mr. Charles Wright in Connecticut, and by the Rev. Mr. Blake 

 in Maine ; and also a few received from the Rev. Mr. Russell 

 of Salem. 



The names of 400 species are given, which swell the number 

 of authentic New England Fungi to 678. Of the following list, 

 73 are entirely new to science. 



