12 Transactions British Mycological Society. 
Tulasne, and the important discoveries made by de Bary and 
Brefeld by means of pure cultures. Since that date we have had 
several other presidential addresses and papers devoted to the 
early workers with fungi and mycetozoa and their first appear- 
ance in our literature, and I thought that perhaps it would not 
be out of place if I directed your attention to-night to the 
progress that has been made in some branches of mycology 
since the foundation of this Society. 
In 1900 Monsieur N. Patouillard published his brilliant 
“Essai taxonomique sur les familles et les genres des Hyméno- 
mycétes,’’ which I ventured to outline at some length in my 
presidential address delivered to this Society at Drumnadrochit 
in September 1908. Patouillard in this work formulates a 
scheme of classification of the Basidiomycetae based on a study 
of the basidium and other microscopical characters. This classifica- 
tion is quite different from the old Friesian system of classification 
and brings together nearly related generdwhich were formerly kept 
far apart, such as Cantharellus and Craterellus, and Boletus and 
Paxillus. Whilst the old heterogeneous species included in the 
Thelephoraceae are now assigned to their appropriate places, 
such as Thelephora sebacea (Pers.) Fr. and Corticitum calceum 
(Pers.) Fr. which are now transferred to Sebacina incrustans Tul. 
and Sebacina calcea (Pers.) Bres., | must say that I have been 
greatly disappointed to find that few British mycologists, with 
the exception of those who have devoted their attention to the 
study of our resupinate fungi, seem to appreciate the importance 
of this reclassification. They continue their studies as if nothing 
had happened to disturb the old Friesian system and pay hardly 
any attention to distinctive microscopical characters. I feel 
convinced that these are of fundamental importance and that 
any book that may be subsequently published on the British 
Basidiomycetae will have to be based on these characters. Be- 
tween the years 1906 and 1908 Dr Franz von Hoehnel and Viktor 
Litschauer published some interesting papers on the Corticia 
under the title “ Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Corticieen” which 
clearly showed that the species in Corticium and _ allied 
genera could only be recognized by a careful microscopical 
examination. They showed that many specimens published in 
several well-known exsiccati were wrongly named, and often 
belonged to other genera, whilst in a few instances they were 
based on scraps of paint or insect workings. von Hoehnel has 
also published many valuable descriptions of fungi in his 
numerous contributions entitled ‘‘Fragmente zur Mycologie”’ 
which have appeared in the Transactions of the Vienna Academy 
(Sitz. der Kaiserl. Akad. Wissenschaft.) between the years 1902 
and 1914. I would more particularly draw your attention to his 
