Shear : Treatment of monotypic genera of fungi 151 



attitude towards the subject also appears to account in part at least 

 for the practice of citing different authors for the same genus or 

 different works of an author as the place of publication. Writers 

 seem to have felt at perfect liberty to attribute a genus to the 

 person whose idea of its limits most nearly accorded with theirs, 

 without particular reference to its treatment or the species included 

 in it by its original author. The place of publication cited for a 

 genus seems either to have been selected upon the same basis or 

 else chosen because it happened to be the most convenient or 

 accessible work. Thus it happens that the ordinary citations for 

 the publication of fungus genera do not, in the majority of cases 

 perhaps, refer to the first or original description or author of the 

 genus. Blind following of authority has also contributed its share 

 towards bringing about the present deplorable condition. 



Without adopting some plan of permanently fixing generic 

 names to some particular species, it is difficult to understand how 

 any degree of stability or uniformity can be attained in the use of 

 names. 



Washington, D. C. 



