BOUDIER'S PLATES. 



The mycological world will be interested in the following letter 

 from the publisher ot Boudier's plates, the final sentence of which we 

 take as a practical pledge that the work will be completed. 



" PARIS, June 15, 1906." 



" DEAR MR. LLOYD, I am much obliged for your notes and kind endorse- 

 ment of Boudier's plates, and hope they may influence additional subscribers 

 to the work. 



"Will you allow me to make a little correction as to your statement of an 

 ' advance of price ?' You reproach me as having made a third advance in price. 

 This is a mistake. The price of Boudier's plates has never been changed from 

 the announcement that was made in the first circular issued, viz., the price of 

 each series when completed is 200 francs, and a reduction is offered of ten per 

 cent to those who subscribe before the completion of each series. Thus Hie 

 price now is 200 francs for the first (completed) series, and 180 francs for each of 

 the five (as yet unissued) series. It is true that a special price was made in favor 

 of those who, having confidence in the author and in myself, subscribed before 

 any portion of the work was issued. Of the eighty-eight subscribers, seventy 

 showed their confidence by subscribing before a single part was distributed. 

 When I became convinced that among at least three hundred serious mycolo- 

 gists there are not two hundred and fifty who would support a work like that of 

 Boudier, I reduced the issue to one hundred and twenty-five copies, thus incn us- 

 ing the relative cost to me nearly double. Notwithstanding, I did not modify 

 the terms from those I had announced at the start, although it would have been 

 entirely legitimate. 



Boudier's plates are, as you state correctly, not a commercial matter 

 purely. They shall be models for future illustrations of fungi, and must be pro- 

 duced and finished as a sample of good work."' (Italics ours.) 



"Yours most faithfully, 



" PAUL KLINCKSIECK." 



We are so highly pleased with the announcement above- that 

 " Boudier's plates must be produced and finished " that we are not 

 disposed to argue about the terms. We are not among those (fortu- 

 nate seventy) who had enough confidence in Mr. Klincksieck to sub- 

 scribe in advance, but we have no grievance in that regard. We con- 

 sider ourselves fortunate in being able to own the work at any price, 

 and if we mistake not in a few years there will be many librario and 

 individuals who will want the work and can not obtain it at any price. 

 Only one hundred and twenty-five copies are printed. At least ten of 

 these go to Mr. Boudier's family and to the state, and the publisher 

 will retain one, etc., so that only one hundred and fifteen will ever be ; 

 sold. We learn from Mr. Klincksieck's letter that eighty-eight have 

 been subscribed, which is nine additional since our last writing, so 

 that only twenty-seven copies are left. It will not be long, we think, 

 until these twenty-seven are spoken for. 



We can not add anything to what we have said of Boudier's 

 work. They are, in our opinion, the only perfect plates of fungi ever 

 issued. From an artist now engaged in preparing a series of illus- 

 trations of American agarics (which, we hope will some day be pubr 

 lished) we have the following letter : 



"Your appreciation of Boudier's plates is of particular interest to IIH . as I 



have seen these in the library at . Without a doubt, no remarks could be 



appreciative enough of such work. In this age of get-into-print-quick M -ii me, 

 it is gratifying to see that there are still some left who follow the example of the 

 old masters in their great ability to take pains." 



We do not give his name, for the work on which he is engaged it 

 a partial secret, but he is an artist and a mycologist, competent to 

 judge of good work. 



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