13 



Dr. Bull, and latterly of Worthington Smith and Dr. Cooke, 

 who indeed commands a whole army of observers, have greatly 

 extended our knowlege of the species which are visible to the 

 naked eye, while with respect to those which require the aid 

 of the microscope for their investigation, a new territory has 

 been acquired, which is bounded only by the powers with 

 which the skill of the optician has supplemented our vision. 



Nor is our interest in this research merely of a scientific 

 character; the malign influence which many of the smaller 

 fungi have been proved to exercise upon our agricultural and 

 domestic economies has compelled attention with a view to 

 restrain and counteract their ravages. The Mucedines or 

 Moulds, the parasites which feed upon the tissues of the 

 higher plants ; the Botrytis or silkworm disease ; the Oidiwn 

 which has paralysed the vine-growths of Madeira ; the 

 Peronospora of the potatoe disease which has caused such 

 disastrous famines ; tlie Pucciniix, distinguished by their 

 articulated spores, of which the wheat mildew is a type ; the 

 Cceomacei, including the " Bunt Rust " and other simple spored 

 fungi ; all these though minute are formidable enemies to the 

 agriculturist ; but their interest has recently been eclipsed by 

 that excited by the latest addition to the kingdom — viz., the 

 Schizomycetes, the Splitspilze of the German naturalists, 

 atoms of exceeding minuteness which propagate themselves by 

 fissure as well as by spores. One genus of these. Bacterium, is 

 now fascinating the attention of physiologists, for it is said to 

 possess a terrible power of self-multiplication at the expense 

 of the living tissues and fluids of its unlucky host. But I pro- 

 pose in this paper to confine my attention to the additions 

 which have been made to the list of one of the most con- 

 spicuous of the families of the Fungi — vi;^. the Hymeno- 

 mycetes — and only to a single order of these, viz., the 

 Agaricini.* 



*As this paper consisted principally of strings of names of little 

 popular interest though of much technical importance, the President 

 proposed that it should be taken as read, and passed on to consider 

 the subject of Edible and Poisonous Fungi. 



