g6 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



and poisonous, which had obsessed all previous British authors, is 

 dropped, as also his class of tree-fungi, and his final classification 

 shews scientific progress in his ideas. Ray, as well as Turner, 

 has been called the "first British Botanist," and even in regard 

 to Fungi that honourable title is deserved. His Synopsis was 

 for long the standard English Flora. 



After the death of John Ray at the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century the first name which claims attention in connection 

 with the study of Mycology is that of William Hudson (1732- 

 1793). He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and Director of 

 the Botanic Garden at Chelsea. His reputation rests on his 

 Flora Anglica of which the first edition was published in 1762. 

 By this time the writings of Linnaeus had become known in 

 England, particularly after his visit to this country in 1732, 

 and his .system of classification became the subject of much 

 criticism and controversy. Hudson was one of his principal 

 champions, and his Flora was the first of any importance to 

 be arranged according to the principles of the great Swedish 

 botanist. With its general merits we are not concerned here 

 further than to note that it was received with acclamation, 

 and superseded as the chief English text-book Ray's Sy^iopsis, 

 which had held that position for seventy years. It is interesting 

 to us now from the fact that he dealt as fully with Cryptogams 

 as was possible at the time, describing Ferns, Mosses, Algae 

 and Fungi. He adopts with great advantage the binomial 

 nomenclature of Linnaeus. His indebtedness to Ray's Synopsis, 

 as well as to Bauhin's Pinax, is freely acknowledged. The 

 method he adopts is, first to give the description of Linnaeus 

 from his Species Plantarum, then those of Bauhin and Ray 

 when available ; to this he adds an English name and the habitat. 

 His meagre list is divided into nine genera: Agaricus, Boletus, 

 Hydnum, Phallus, Elvella, Peziza, Clavaria, Lycoperdon and 

 Mucor. And the curious thing is that instead of adding to 

 the number of Ray's plants he does not describe nearly so many. 

 Ray gives 57 gilled Fungi, while Hudson has only 24; of his 

 order Boleti (including Polypori) Ray gives 17 and Hudson 9, 

 and so on. No doubt in the second edition of the Flora Anglica 

 published in 1778, the number of Agarici has mounted from 

 24 to 51, and the number of Boleti from 9 to 13, but as the 

 Agarici included all gilled Fungi and the Boleti included all 

 Fungi with pores, it is evident that a very large number of 

 quite common plants in both genera were overlooked by him. 

 In his second edition he adds a genus Clathrus, containing eight 

 Mycetozoa. It is not however worth while to examine this 

 Flora further. Hudson had given little time or attention to 

 Fungi, and he did not know more than a very few. He had 



