482 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
No. 5.--A STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF AUSTRALIAN 
FUNGI UP TO THE END OF 1897, 
By D. McA .pine. 
(Read Monday, January 10, 1898.) 
Havine prepared a work for the Victorian Department of Agri- 
culture, entitled “A Systematic Arrangement of Australian Fungi, 
together with Host-Index and List of Works on the Subject,” in 
which all Australian Fungi known up to the end of 1894 are 
inserted, and as a record has been kept of all additions since that 
date, I thought it might prove of some scientific interest to give 
the results in a statistical form. 
To some it may appear premature to attempt such a task, seeing 
that our knowledge of Australian Fungi is still so meagre, but it 
will serve at least to mark the progress already made, as well as 
to provide material for comparison at some future date. Besides, 
when the gaps in our knowledge of this important division of vege- 
table life are prominently brought forward, it may be the means 
of inducing some to attempt to fill them up. On two previous 
occasions Dr. M. C. Cooke, the eminent mycologist, has provided 
us with a collected list of Australian species of Fungi, and these 
will be useful for comparison with the present record. 
First, in 1883, Dr. Cooke published “ Fungi Australiani” as a 
supplement to ‘ Fragmenta Phytographize Australie,” by the late 
Baron von Mueller, in which 1,189 species are recorded, excluding 
synonyms. 
Next, in 1892, Dr. Cooke’s “ Handbook of Australian Fungi” 
was published, in which the total number of species given are 
2,067. 
Then, in 1895, the “Systematic Arrangement of Australian 
Fungi” was published by myself, containing all species known up 
to the end of 1894, and numbering 2,284 species. 
The following table will show how the species are distributed 
among the different groups. I have classified them under twelve 
groups, omitting the Schizomycetes or Bacteria, because they still 
await investigation at the hands of the specialist. 
