AN ACCOUNT OF THE NATAL FUNGI COLLECTED 

 BY T. MEDLEY WOOD. 



Bv AVERIL AL\UD BOTTOMLEY, B.A. 



The late Dr. Medley Wood's fungi amounted to some 550 

 mounted specimens. All, with very few exceptions, were found 

 in Natal between the years 1875 and 191 5, and by far the larger 

 number were collected at Inanda about 1881, before he took 

 charge of the Botanic Gardens, Durban. 



The collection of these plants was thus primarily merely a 

 hobby ; for this reason, and taking into consideration his inade- 

 quate equipment and lack of reference books, it is greatly to 

 his credit that there are so few omissions in his earlier collec- 

 tions. 



Until recently the collection was left untouched ; the speci- 

 mens were retained in paper capsules firmly glued to sheets of 

 mounting paper. No attempt was made to classify them be- 

 yond keeping those which are usually parasitic on living plants 

 from the others. Dr. M. Wood deprecated the fact that lack 

 of time prevented his remounting the specimens, because he 

 feared that the above arrangement would lead to different species 

 getting mixed when examined, the value of type specimens thus 

 being destroyed. Now, however, in accordance with his wish, 

 they have been remounted and classified, and, in order to make 

 the collection of as much use as possible, it has been thoroughly 

 revised ; modern names have been substituted for obsolete, un- 

 determined specimens have as far as possible been determined, 

 and the whole has been incorporated with the Mycological Her- 

 barium, TVetoria. 



The above collection has been selected from several sets of 

 specimens, vis., his " Cry]>togamia Austr. .\fricana — Herb. J. 

 M. Wood," divided into 2^ folios, each folio consisting of a 

 single sheet of 18 mounted specimens; the set entitled "Ex. 

 Herb. Woodianum, Colonial Herb — South African Plants," and 

 miscellaneous specimens, many of whose numbers are prefixed 

 by an A, his earlier distinguishing- mark for the Cryptogams in 

 general. The same specimen was often duplicated in ihe dif- 

 ferent sets, Imt is, of course, only cjuoted once. 



In the list i)repare(l below, the fungi have been arranged 

 according to Engler and Prantl's system of classification. There 

 are 100 genera, representing fairlv well all the groups of Fungi 

 except the Fungi Imperfecti, of which there are only eight 

 genera. 'Hie majority of the si)ecimpns. however, belong to the 

 Uredine?e and the Agaricace^e. Of the 34 new species described 

 by Cooke in ])ul)lications of Grevillea, 30 belong to the ft)rmer 

 uroup alone. .Vmong genera of particular interest might be 

 mentioned Rod7>.'aya Syd.. formerly known as Camphcltia Cke. 

 and Mass., one of the Polyix^racere Api:)arently only two species 

 of this genus have' been recorded so far. one, R. infitudibiili- 



