THE THELEPHORACE OF NORTH AMERICA. I' 
EDWARD ANGUS BURT 
M ycologist and. Librarian to the Missouri Botanical Garden 
Associate Professor in the Henry Shaw School of Botany of 
Washington University 
INTRODUCTION 
This monographie study of the North American Thelephoracee 
was begun in 1894 as the author’s contribution towards a greatly 
needed manual of the Basidiomycetes of the United States,—a 
need that still confronts us. It has been necessary to carry on 
these investigations in connection with college and other work 
which required most of my time, but the long period covered 
has been an advantage; for during these two decades there has 
been such widespread interest in the Thelephoracee on the part 
of American students of fungi that it has been possible to study 
this family and its distribution from extensive series of freshly 
collected specimens from all the important regions of North 
America with the exception of Alaska, Mexico, and the Colorado- 
New Mexico region of the United States, from which but 
small collections have been received. "These specimens have 
been preserved unpoisoned in my herbarium in insect-proof 
tin boxes which receive herbarium sheets, and each will be 
cited by the number or other designation adopted by my cor- 
respondents in order that their specimens may be as useful for 
future reference as my own. Тһе quantity of material always 
awaiting examination has confined my work to a systematie 
treatment of this family. 
Except in the case of types of species, specimens of published 
exsiccati, and the specimens of Schweinitz’s herbarium, I cite 
but few specimens from the large herbaria. This is done on 
account of the difficulty and large amount of time involved in 
making a study of the material contained in them. Serious 
changes in the condition of the specimens in these herbaria have 
been occasioned partly by time but more largely by the poison- 
ous solutions with which the specimens were soaked for preser- 
vation under old-fashioned methods of herbarium procedure,— 
1 Issued July 1, 1914. (185) 
ANN. Mo. Вот. Garp., Vor. 1, 1914 
