Distribution of Fungi. 273 
are comparatively less known. Asia is little known, except it be 
the islands of the Indian Archipelago, the Philippine Islands, and 
the Himalaya Mountains. The most important works on the 
mycology of these distant regions are those of Junghuhn, rela- 
tive to the Fungi of Java, and those of Berkeley, which have 
made us acquainted with the rich collection brought from the 
Himalayas by Dr. Hooker. With respect to Africa, Algeria has 
been pretty well explored; Egypt and Guinea have been only 
partially so; but the Cape of Good Hope and Natal have been 
examined by several collectors, among whom must be mentioned 
with especial praise my fellow-countryman, Wahlberg, to whom 
I am indebted for a rich collection of specimens: nevertheless 
the mycology of the South Sea Islands (Oceania) is still better 
known, inasmuch as successful explorations have been carried 
out by all the scientific expeditions which have visited those parts. 
We have deemed it necessary to trace the foregoing sketch of 
the sources of information to which we owe our acquaintance 
with the geographical distribution of the Fungi; we will now 
attempt a brief exposition of this distribution, confining our re- 
marks more particularly to the higher forms (Hymenomycetes 
and Gasteromycetes), since our knowledge of the inferior or 
simpler Fungi (Gymnomycetes and Haplomycetes) is as yet too 
incomplete, and our notions of the characters to which a generic 
importance should be assigned too vague to allow of the indica- 
tion of the same general results with regard to them. 
I. 
With reference to the Gymnomycetes and the Haplomycetes 
of non-European countries, the United States of North America 
excepted, little or nothing is known, except it be respecting 
some parasitic epiphyllous forms. These do not present genera 
peculiar to the different zones of the globe; yet it must be ad- 
mitted that the number of their species or forms augments in an 
equal proportion with that of the plants which inhabit them. 
In fact, these Fungi are clearly-subjected to the same law as 
prevails with other low organisms, the species of which are spread 
in a more uniform manner over the globe than those of more 
highly organized beings. Inasmuch, too, as these inferior or- 
ganisms are dependent rather upon their matrix and on local 
conditions than on the influence of climate, we have an explana- 
tion why their distinctive differences are of less essential import- 
ance. ‘Thus it is a well-known fact that the most common of 
the mildews, the Penicillium crustaceum, is to be met with alike 
on the Alps of Lapland and in the oasis of Jupiter Ammon in 
the Libyan desert,—an example which has no parallel in the 
geographical distribution of the higher plants, 
