12 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



yielded to his fate, not only with Catholic ceremonies but with the 

 feelings of a Christian."^ 



Micheli's botanical work is specially distinguished by the accurate 

 illustration of several difhcult families of plants which his predecessor 

 Tournefort had left untouched. The genus Carex first assumed an 

 intelligible form under his hands. He described a large number of 

 Lichens which had previously been neglected, and he was the first to 

 illustrate the reproductive structures in Mosses although he did not 

 understand their significance. For the Liverworts he founded the 

 genera Blasia, Marsilea, Jungermannia, Sphaerocarpus, Anthoceros, 

 Targionia, etc. He also studied Sea-weeds and had numerous plates 

 engraved which he intended to publish in a second volume of his 

 great work; but he died before this could be accomplished. Like his 

 contemporaries he confounded Corals and Hydrozoa with Sea-weeds, 

 and made a genus out of the present hydroid Sertularia which he called 

 Dillenia after the botanist Dillenius. He also made a large collection 

 of fossils, but he never published anything concerning them. The 

 chief products of his pen, in addition to the Nova Plantarum Genera, 

 were: an account of his botanical tours in Italy, an alphabetical cata- 

 logue of all the plants in the garden at Florence, and an octavo pamph- 

 let on Orobanche which he rightly regarded as a noxious weed which 

 ought to be exterminated. He said that the best way to get rid of 

 Orobanche would be to eradicate the beans or other plants to which 

 the parasite attaches itself, in the month of April, for the parasite 

 which is an annual plant, would thus be prevented from producing 

 seeds upon which it is dependent for its continuance from year to year. 



Notwithstanding his contributions to other branches of Botany, 

 it is as a mycologist that Micheli has the greatest claim to remembrance 

 by posterity. He described a large number of new species, founded a 

 number of new genera, and arranged them in a new system which he 

 based on his own discoveries. The genera Polyporus, Phallus, Botry- 

 tis, Aspergillus, Clathrus, Mucor, Lycogala, and Geaster all owe their 

 names to him. Micheli was a leader in the description of the smaller 

 fungi, particularly of the Moulds and of the Mycetozoa. He also 

 invented the name Puccinia which he used to include our Gymno- 

 sporangium and Ceratiomyxa. He described several hundred species 

 of fungi like the Mushroom, and therefore found it necessary to elabo- 



1 As a source of facts for Micheli's life and general work as a botanist, I have 

 consulted J. E. Smith's article Micheli in Rees' Cyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII, London, 

 1819; J. E. Smith's A Sketch of a Tour on the Continent, ed. II, London, 1807, 

 vol. I; Dawson Turner's Extracts from the Literary and Scientific Correspondence 

 of Richard Richardson, Yarmouth, 1835; etc.; and Micheli's Nova Plantarum 

 Genera. 



