XIII. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



UNFORTUNATELY no complete or satisfactory account can be given 

 of the geographical distribution of fungi. The younger Fries,* 

 with all the facilities at his disposal which the lengthened 

 experience and large collections of his father afforded, could only 

 give a very imperfect outline, and now we can add very little 

 to what he has given. The cause of this difficulty lies in the 

 fact that the Mycologic Flora of so large a portion of the world 

 remains unexplored, not only in remote regions, but even in 

 civilized countries where the Phanerogamic Flora is well known. 

 Europe, England, Scotland, and Wales are as well explored as 

 any other country, but Ireland is comparatively unknown, no 

 complete collection having ever been made, or any at least 

 published. Scandinavia has also been well examined, and the 

 northern portions of France, with Belgium, some parts of Ger- 

 many and Austria, in Russia the neighbourhood of St. Peters- 

 burg, and parts of Italy and Switzerland. Turkey in Europe, 

 nearly all Russia, Spain, and Portugal are almost unknown. As 

 to North America, considerable advances have been made since 

 Schweinitz by Messrs. Curtis and Ravenel, but their collections 

 in Carolina cannot be supposed to represent the whole of the 

 United States ; the small collections made in Texas, Mexico, 

 etc., only serve to show the richness of the country, not yet half 

 exhausted. It is to be hoped that the young race of botanists 

 in the United States will apply themselves to the task of investi- 



* Mr. E. P. Fries, in "Ann. des Sci. Nat." 1861, xv. p. 10. 



