premiere du genre et de verifier si telle plante lui appartient bien. 

 Voyons ce qu'il en est dans le cas actuel. 



Schweinitz un raycologue americain envoya a Fries un echan- 

 tillon d'un Champignon. Ne pouvant le faire rentrer dans un genre 

 -connu, Fries fit ce que font en pareil cas les botanistes modernes : il se 

 lira d'affaire en creant le novum genus Calvatia. Qu'il n'eut pas 1'idee 

 nette de ce genre, cela est de toute evidence, car des plantes ayant 

 -des caracteres generiques manifestement semblables a ceux de la 

 plante americaine croissent dans la propre patrie de Fries et il ne re- 

 -connut pas 1'affinite des unes et des autres. Une idee du genre Calva- 

 tia dormait pendant plus d'un demi-siecle, quand Morgan un autre 

 mycologue americain la reprit, la precisa d'apres 1'examen d'un 

 -echantillon de 1'herbier de Schweinitz. Dira-t-on encore qu'on doit ac- 

 coler le nom de Fries a Calvatia et qu'on doit remonter jusqu'a son 

 ouvrage pour prendre une idee d'un genre dont lui, Fries, n'avait pas 

 idee? Ce cas n'est pas le seul; la litterature botanique est pleine de 

 cas semblables. De la vient que je trouve deplorable le systeme des 

 "Petites-AflEiches." 



ERRORS. 



It is our aim to have every statement that appears in Mycological Notes in 

 keeping with the truth, and we will gladly correct every error that may be 

 brought to our attention, however slight. We fully believe that at least one- 

 half the past literature of " puff-balls " though very interesting, is not true. 



The references on page 225 to "Plate oo figure oo," etc., are of course, errors 

 due to bad proof-reading. Personally, I am a very poor proof-reader, and this 

 'issue, in which the work is left to others, being published in America while I 

 ;am in Europe, I hope will be free from such obvious errors. 



Nothing apparently gives so much fiendish joy to a printer as to slip in a 

 jcutof a "puff-ball" and stand it on its head, as figures So and 86. From the 

 time the copy goes into his hands until the pamphlet comes from the press, it is a 

 Constant war to keep the figures on their feet, and we are not always the victors. 



In compiling the Index we noted an error on page 182. It was Vittadini's 

 L/ycoperdon tomeutosum that was compiled in Saccardo as Bovista tomeutosa, 

 not Curry's Lycoperdon tomentosum. We do not know how we happened to 

 .make that slip as we knew better at the time. 



The statement in the note, page 159, that " the same house in which Per- 

 'soon lived still remains near the Gare de Lyon " is an error of fact. The street, 

 i" rue des Charbonnier," where Persoon lived is not the same street of Paris that 

 ibear.-i that name now, as it was located on the other side of the Seine in a quar- 

 iter that has since been largely reconstructed and its identity lost to the present 

 igeneration. I thank Monsieur Camus t for information on which this correction 

 ,is made. 



The statement on page 244 that Lycoperdon Berkeleyi is a synonym for 

 Calvatia craniiformis is true as stated, but there are two Lycoperdons Berkeley!, 

 (both based on the two Lycoperdons delicatum, and all four are errors. 



I ~~ ~~~ ' 



t Monsieur F.Camus has kindly favored me with the following note: " A 1'^poque 

 ou Persoon habitait Paris, il y avail deux rues des Charbonniers. I/une, rue des Char- 

 bonniers-Saint-Atitoine, existe encore, 1'autre - ou logeait Persoon - n' existe plus. El'e 

 s'appelait rue des Charbonuiers-Saint-Marceau. Kile se trouvait a peu pres sur 1'emplacement 

 ,d'une partie de la rue Berthollet actuelle et a 6t6 dtruite vers 1860, lors du percement du 

 Boulevard de Port-royal. La rue ties Lyoiinais, qui aboutissait a 1'ancienne rue des Charbon- 

 tiiers-Saint-Marceau, et qui n'a pas subi de transformations modernes, peut donner une ide 

 ide plutdt triste de ce que devait Stre la rue qu'habitait Persoon." 



257 



