242 NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



Fries in Systema Mycologicum published in 1823, anc ^ Cooke 

 in Handbook of British Fungi, in 1871. 



Phillips in his book entitled British Discomycetes, pub- 

 lished in 1887 describes more than six hundred species of 

 plants belonging to this group, which occur in England. 



In 1889 Saccardo published Sylloge Fungorum in which 

 all the known species up to that date are described, and in 

 1897 Engler and Prantl published that part of the Naturlichen 

 Pflanzen Familien in which the principal groups are des- 

 cribed and illustrated. 



The classification of the group varies at different times and 

 with different authors. Most of the forms now belonging to the 

 Pczizinece were at first included under the genus Pcsiza and 

 it was represented by only a small number of described species 

 The Pt'.zizincce are now represented by about three thousand 

 known species which are distributed among many different 

 genera, the exact number of genera depending upon the 

 author. The Discomycetes represent one of the largest groups 

 of fungi and are world-wide in their distribution. 



The external characters were used by the early authors as 

 the only basis for classification, but since the microscope has 

 come into use, in addition to the external characters, much 

 attention is given by recent writers on the subject to the 

 internal characters such as the size of the asci, spores and 

 paraphyses, also to the form, markings and coloration of the 

 spores. 



By most of the recent authors the Pczizincae are divided 

 into nine families, the distinction between the families being 

 made on the internal and external characters as given above. 



Dr. E. J. Durand of Cornell University suggests a new 

 basis of classification for separating the Pezizinece into families. 

 He divides the Pczizi)iece into four families, the distinction 

 being made upon the structural characters of the sterile part 

 of the fruiting phase. Since the aim in modern classification 

 is to show as far as possible the natural relationship, a classifi- 



