compilation. To collate and arrange in a systematic manner the 

 31,927 descriptions of fungi that are included in the first eight volumes 

 of " Sylloge Fungorum" was a monumental task, and when the under- 

 taking was announced no one believed that it would ever be brought 

 to a successful finish. The fact that it was finished is a living monu- 

 ment to the energy, perseverance and pluck of the man whose portrait 

 heads this article. 



When this work was completed in eight volumes, in 1889, the 

 mycological world then had a basis on which good work could have 

 been done, for the true investigator who wishes to learn the truth 

 about a subject, has his work more than half finished when some one 

 publishes a good index of the subject. It is a question, however, if 

 the completion of Saccardo's Sylloge has on the whole advanced the 

 science of mycology: on the other hand it has probably greatly re- 

 tarded it. When the final truth is known about fungous flora of the 

 world it will be found that " species" are of wide distribution, and that 

 the fungous flora of the entire world is practically the same. The main 

 object of the student should be to find out what these species are, their 

 relationships, how they resemble and how they differ from each other 

 and their distribution. 



Since the appearance of Saccardo's work, and before too for that 

 matter, the chief object of most mycologists appears to be to hunt for 

 "new species." A local worker finds a fungus that he is unable to 

 determine. He looks through the section of Saccardo where it ought 

 to be, does not find anything that exactly fits it and announces that 

 he has discovered a " new species." The probabilities are, in three 

 out of four cases, that he has simply failed to recognize an old species, 

 and that he could not recognize one out of ten of the old species from 

 any descriptions that have been published of them 1 . The appearance 

 of Saccardo's completed work, therefore, did not in the main lead to a 

 better knowledge of the subject but has in fact greatly complicated it 

 by stimulating the production of a host of "new species," now almost 

 equalling the original number of twenty years ago, when the field was 

 first covered by Saccardo's original eight volumes. We can not blame 

 Saccardo's work, however, for this result, though it undoubtedly led 

 to it, any more than we can blame the monumental " Index Kewensis" 

 for the extent of useless name juggling that it made possible. When 

 Saccardo completed his eight volumes, the mycological world then 

 had a basis on which to produce lasting work but failed to rise to 

 the occasion. 



FOREIGN NOTES. An article, supposed to be on Polyporii of the Philip- 

 pines, recently appeared in one of the New York publications. It seems to be 

 in some barbarous language, unfamiliar to mycologists, and is probably intended 

 for the use of the Igorots. 



II do not refer to local work of course. It is not only possible but practicable to recognize 

 the greater part of the Hymenomycetes of Sweden from Fries' work but not out of S'.i'id.x. In 

 the United States it is possible to recognize the greater number of the agarics one meets in 

 those genera which Professor 1'eck has systematically monographed, but not from his isolated 

 descriptions ot 'new species" in those genera which he has not brought into systematic order. 



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