Ill 



ever disparage or omit to mention the plates executed by our own 



.countryman, Sowerby, such as have never been surpassed, and which 



. are unrivalled as depicting, though sometimes with exaggeration, the 



characteristic forms and mode of growth of the fungi. More beauti- 



' fully finished and scientific in design are the figures in Dr. Greville's 



admirable work, the value of which is greatly enhanced by details and 



.descriptions. The most essential book for the student of British 



.Mycology is, however, the volume in the English Flora, written by the 



•Rev. M. J. Berkeley. The arrangement is chiefly after Fries, but the 



descriptions indicate the author's thorough practical acquaintance with 



-the subject. Mr. Berkeley has also written notices of about seven 



hundred additional species, in the Annals and Magazine of Natural 



History. 



The writer next treated of the several divisions or orders of the Fungi, 

 following the arrangement of Montague, who had classed them under 

 six principal denominations, namely the couiomycetes or powdery 

 fungi ; the hyphomycetes or tissue-like fungi ; the gasteromycetes or 

 .pouched fungi ; the pyrecomycetes or nucleated fungi ; the discomy- 

 cetes or discoid fungi ; and the hymenomycetes or complicated exos- 

 porous fungi. For the English terms the writer was himself respon- 

 sible, and in the elucidation of the habits and properties of the several 

 species belonging to these orders, he exhibited several beautiful speci- 

 mens, which were dwelt upon at much length, and in an exceedingly 

 luminous and interesting manner. 



Having dismissed this, the most important part of his subject 

 (one which was not put in writing, and unfortunately, therefore, 

 cannot be transferred to these pages), the rev. gentleman pro- 

 ceeded as follows : — In a letter received not long ago from Mr. Ward, 

 he says, " I am much pleased with your account of the case of fungi 

 in the Museum of the Royal Institution. Might I venture to suggest 

 a second case ? By placing the poisonous species in one, and the edible 

 fungi in another, you would confer a great boon on the labouring 

 classes, who might thus learn to avoid the hurtful species, and avail 

 themselves of the numerous wholesome and edible species, which are 

 now unavailable from want of knowledge. We have in this respect 

 much to learn from our continental neighbours. Some yeai's ago I 

 passed two or three autumnal weeks in the Lombardo-Venetian States, 

 and was much surprised at the very great number of species, and the 

 large amount of each, that were exhibited in the markets. Although 

 a very trifling duty is imposed on their sale, the amount of the duty in 

 one of the states reaches £2,000 per annum. An inspector is appointed 

 by each government to prevent the admixture of unwholesome species." 



