270 M. E. P. Fries on the Geographical 
hand, the Mosses, Hepatic, and lower forms of Algz have not 
hitherto been available for any useful purpose, and the Muce- 
dines are chiefly known by the injurious effects they produce to 
other plants. These considerations afford an explanation of the 
circumstance that the Greeks and Romans distinguished so long 
ago a considerable number of species of Alge and Fong, prin- 
cipally of such as were either useful or noxious, whilst they 
Soniuteely neglected the other tribes of Cryptogamic plants, as 
is illustrated by the fact that they comprehended under the 
collective name of Muscus the whole class of Mosses. 
Upon the revival of botanical science in the sixteenth century, 
the Fungi attracted the attention of naturalists beyond all other 
cellular plants. In the course of this century, in 1583, Cesal- 
pinus published his famous work ‘De Plantis,’ in which the 
Fungi were not forgotten. But the first work of a special cha- 
racter devoted to this class of plants was that of Charles de 
’Ecluse, published in 1601, entitled ‘ Fungorum in Pannoniis 
observatorum brevis historia,’ and at a later date the ‘Theatrum 
Fungorum’ of Sterbeeck. These two works treated especially of 
the higher Fungi. Subsequently a multitude of treatises on 
the Fungi in general were produced, among which several sur- 
vive to our time and still possess great value—such, for instance, 
as those of Vaillant, Micheli, Battara, and Scheffer. It was 
not until the eighteenth century that the oceanic flora received 
at the hands of naturalists the attention it merited, although in 
our own day it has become so favourite a study that few depart- 
ments of botany can boast of so large a number of distinguished 
cultivators. 
At the present time the superior Fungi are, it must be ad- 
mitted, very indifferently studied; and consequently their geo- 
graphical distribution is more imperfectly known than that of 
the other classes of the vegetable kingdom. The majority of 
those who make the Fungi a special study are almost exclusively 
interested in the Mucedines, in the lower forms of the class, and 
in the parasitic and epiphyllous species. One reason for this pre- 
dilection for those tribes of Fungi is doubtless to be found in the 
circumstance that they may be more readily preserved in herbaria, 
and that in consequence it becomes more easy, by the aid of 
such collections, to determine species already known. A similar 
advantage, on the other hand, is unattainable in the case of the 
higher Fungi; for their fugacious nature, and the difficulty en- 
countered in attempting to preserve their colour and natural 
form, compel naturalists on every occasion to procure fresh spe- 
cimens and study them anew, at the sacrifice of much time and 
labour bestowed in the task of making themselves acquainted 
with what has been already made out. The same cause renders 
