I06 I'KKSIDKNTIAL ADDRESS SKCTION C. 



A.L.S., of Kentaiii. who has probably made a more exhaustive 

 collection of the flora of her district than has yet been attempted 

 in any other part of SotJth Africa. 



A paper dealing with these collections, and entitled " An 

 Enumeration of the Fungi collected at Kentani, in the Cape 

 Province, by Miss Alice Pegler, from 1911-1914, with Descri])- 

 tions of some New Species," has been prepared by myself and 

 Miss Bottomley, and has now been in the hands of the ]:)ress for 

 over a year. 



Messrs. T. R. and J. M. Sim, both of this city, have also been 

 responsible during the i)ast few years for forwarding us many 

 interesting fungi from Natal. 



We have thus accuinulatcd sufficient data not only to enable 

 us to generalise on the fungus flora of South Africa, but in many 

 cases there is now present in the Herbarium at Pretoria adequate 

 material to provide for detailed systematic w^ork. 



Dr. Doidge, of whom this city may justly be proud, has 

 already monographed the lirysipJiacccc and Perisporiacecc. 



Dr. Van der Bijl, who is in charge of the Natal Herbarium 

 and Phyto-Pathological Laboratory, is paying particular atten- 

 tion to the Polyporacecc, a group of fungi, many of which are 

 very destructive to our forest trees and timbers. 



Incidentally, I have been working up the Uredinac or rust 

 fungi, \\hich are extremely i^revalent and destructive in all 

 classes of vegetation in South Africa. So much for the systema- 

 tic side of our subject. 



We will now turn our attention to the economic aspect ol 

 mycology, or that phase of the subject which apjieals more 

 directly to the general public, and I shall endeavour to show why 

 mycology deserves recognition as an in.i])ortant branch of re- 

 search, confining myself to a few South African examples which 

 have directly come under my notice during the past ten years. 



The ignorance of the subject and the vague notions that 

 people have about fungi are, I think, due chiefly to the fact that 

 most of them are microscopic, and consecjuently cannot easily 

 be conceived bv those unfaiiiihar with the life of the unseen 

 world. 



Fungi affect oin- staple crops, especially those upon which 

 our very existence depends. They inliabit and attack the pastur- 

 age upon which our stock subsist. They destroy our forest trees 

 and ruin our timber. ( )n the (jther hand, we know that they pre- 

 pare the soil for ])lant growth, and with bacteria play a most im- 

 portant i)art in the preparation of humus. 'iMiey undoubtedly 

 control and are often the means of saving the country from ruin 

 and devastation by insect pests. 'I'hey have important com- 

 mensal relationshi])s with m;uiy of the higher ])lants, and thus 

 have far-reaching effects upon tlieir distribution. 



Whenever the topic of plant diseases conies under discussion, 

 it fre(juentl\ ha])i)ens that the grower is inclined to take a very 

 pessimistic \iew of tiie situati(^n in ."-^outh Africa, and imagiiie 



