16 Transactions British Mycological Society. 
applying these intensive studies to the investigation of our 
British resupinate Basidiomycetae. I consider also that I am 
justified in offering to them on your behalf our very hearty 
congratulations on having two new British species named in 
their honour by l’Abbé Bresadola and l’Abbé Bourdot, viz. 
Corticium Wakefieldiae Bres., and Cortictum Pearsonii Bourd. 
In 1915 Lange published further monographs on the genera 
Amanita, Lepiota and Coprinus in his “‘ Studies in the Agarics of 
Denmark” (see Dansk. Bot. Ark. Pind. 2, No. 3), but it is only 
to this last one that I propose to draw your attention because 
I think the groups into which he has divided the species of 
Coprini are very natural ones and well worthy of adoption. He 
arranges them in three sections: 
I. Comati: Pileus when young covered by filaments made 
up of cylindric or irregularly branched cells; 
II. Fartnosi: Pileus when young covered with meal or glis- 
tening particles formed of globose cells; and 
Ill. Nupt: Pileus naked. Veil none. 
a. Setulosi: Pileus sparsely and minutely bristly or setu- 
lose under a lens. 
B. Glabri: Pileus quite bare and without setulae. 
Lange unfortunately only deals with about half the number of the 
British species, so there is plenty of work for our members to do in 
determining towhich section the omitted ones should be referred. 
In 1907 the eminent French mycologist Emile Boudier pub- 
lished his “‘ Histoire et classification des Discomycétes.’”’ This 
work further elaborates the excellent system of classification of 
the Discomycetae which this great master had first outlined in 
1885 in the Bulletin de la Société Mycologique de France, I, 91. 
The great superiority of this system over all others is due to the 
fact that it is based on a careful investigation of all the micro- 
scopical characters, and related genera are brought into a natural 
instead of an artificial sequence. Boudier was the first mycolo- 
gist to draw attention to the importance of the mode of de- 
hiscence of the ascus in this group, and this constitutes the 
basis of his two main divisions, the Operculeae dehiscing by a 
circular opening furnished with a lid, and the Jnoperculeae de- 
hiscing by a simple apical orifice. In his original essay Boudier 
only assigned a few species to each genus but in his later work 
he gives a complete list of them. This made his scheme much 
easier to work with and shortly afterwards I ventured to record 
our British species under his genera in the lists of specimens 
collected at our forays. In 1913 Mr J. Ramsbottom made it 
available for the use of British students by publishing in our 
