[Vol. 2 



668 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



the type specimens not preserved, so that it is impossible to 

 tell to what plants the descriptions refer. 



By the beginning of the nineteenth century those interested 

 in this line of study had begun to feel the need of permanent 

 herbaria containing specimens of all the species described. 

 The appreciation of this need augmented the demand for a 

 more systematic and a more natural arrangement of the 

 genera and species of fungi. 



It thus came about that while Linnaeus in 1753 had listed 

 but one genus, Boletus, and 12 species of pore fungi (Bole- 

 taceae and Polyporaceae), the number of genera had in- 

 creased to 3 and the number of species to 93 when Persoon 

 published his 'Synopsis Fungorum,' in 1801. This was fol- 

 lowed by the work of Albertini and Schweinitz (Conspectus 

 Fungorum) in 1805, which was modeled after the work of 

 Persoon and contributes nothing to the systematic arrange- 

 ment of the Polyporeae. It must not be supposed, however, 

 that there was any extraordinary change from the incomplete 

 descriptions of the earlier writers to a more or less perfect 

 standard of description that should include all the facts neces- 

 sary for the identification of the species. The descriptions in 

 Persoon 's 'Synopsis' were still far from what could be de- 

 sired, and it is only where these are supplemented by her- 

 barium specimens or by accurate illustrations or by both that 

 the species can be identified beyond all doubt. But the fact 

 remains that the beginning of the nineteenth century wit- 



nessed a growing inclination on the part of mycological 

 systematists toward a form of record for the species that 

 would be more concrete in its conception and thus give an 

 added impetus to the study of the fungi. 



Among the vast array of mycologists produced in the nine- 

 teenth century by far the most prominent was Elias Fries. 

 His first work of importance was the ' Systema Mycologicum, ' 

 published in 1821-1832, in which the known fungi were mar- 

 shalled in order. To the genera of the Polyporeae listed by 

 Persoon he added the genus Polyporus (first proposed by 

 Micheli in the eighteenth century) and thus made; the first 

 attempt to separate the Boletaceae from the Polyporaceae. 



