At 



AFTER thirty years of study of our British Basidiomycetae I 



have ventured to write this text-book at the request of many 



I mycological friends. The well-known classification of Fries is 



now insufficient for modern requirements and must be altered to 

 embody the results obtained from a more detailed anatomical 

 and microscopical examination of these plants. The present work 

 is based chiefly on the excellent system set forth by N. Patouillard 



v in his Essai taxonomique sur les families et les genres des Hymeno- 



- 7 mycetes, published in 1900. Since this date several alterations 

 and additions to this scheme have been made, due to the in- 

 vestigations of the eminent mycologists J. Bresadola, E. A. Burt, 



. 5 H. Bourdot and A. Galzin, F. von Hoehnel and V. Litschauer, and 



- Rene Maire. My very best thanks are due to Mr J. Ramsbottom 

 ^ for his invaluable technical advice and assistance in the prepara- 

 tion of the manuscript and for kindly correcting the proof-sheets 

 of this work, and to Miss E. M. Wakefield for valuable information 



\ respecting the Thelephoraceae. I am also very greatly indebted 

 . I to Messrs A. D. Cotton, C. H. Grinling, A. A. Pearson and J. 



^ Ramsbottom for obtaining the large subsidy for the publication 

 of this work, to the generous contributors to the same, and to 

 The Royal Society for a grant-in-aid of 10. 



CARLETON REA. 

 Wth June, 1922. 



