TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 835 



complete systems of classification, and those -wlio, generalising from actual 

 cultures and observation of the living plant, proposed outline schemes, the details 

 of which should be filled in by their successors. 



No one who knows the history of botany during this century will deny that 

 it is to the genius of De Bary that we owe the foundation of modern mycology, 

 for it was this young Alsatian who, though pi-ofoundly influenced by the work of 

 Vou Mohl and Schleiden on the one hand, and of Unger and the Tulasnes on the 

 other, refused to follow either the school cf the phytotomists— though his 

 laborious ' Comparative Anatomj' of the Ferns and Phanerogams ' shows how 

 well equipped he was to be a leader in that direction — or that of the ana- 

 tomical mycologists. Iso doubt the influence of Cohn, Pringsheim, and others 

 of that new army of microscopists who were teaching the necessity of con- 

 tinued observation of living organisms under the microscope, can be traced 

 in impelling De Bai'y to abandon the older methods, but his own unquestionable 

 originality of thought and method came out very early in his investigations on 

 the Lower Algm and Fungi. If I may compare a branch of science to an arm of 

 the sea, we may look on De Bary's influence as that of a Triton rising to a 

 surface but little disturbed by currents and eddies. The sudden upheaval of his 

 genius set that sea rolling in huge waves, the play of which is not yet exhausted. 



The birth and flow of the new ideas, expressed in far-reaching generalisations and 

 suggestions which are still moving, led to the revolutions in our notions of polymor- 

 phism, parasitism, and the real nature of infection and epidemics. His development 

 of the meaning of sexuality in Fungi, his startling discovery of heterceeism, his 

 clear exposition of symbiosis, and even his cautious and almost wondering whisper of 

 chemotaxis were all fruitful, and although the questions of enzyme-action and 

 fermentation were not made peculiarly his own, he saw the significance of these 

 and many other phenomena now grown so important, and here, as elsewhere, 

 thought clearly and boldly, and criticised fearlessly with full knowledge and 

 justice. 



I do not propose to occupy our time with even a sketch of the history of these 

 and other ideas of this great botanist ; but rather pass to the consideration of a few 

 of the results of some of them in the hands of later workers, in schools now far 

 developed and widely independent of one another, but all deeply indebted to the 

 genial little man whom we so loved and revered. 



The most marked feature noticed in the founding of the new schemes of classi- 

 fication of the Fungi was the influence of the results of pure and continuous cultures 

 introduced by De Bary. The efiect on those who followed can best be traced by 

 examining the great systems of subsequent workers, led by Brefeld and Van 

 Tieghem, and the writings of our modern systematists. This task is beyond 

 my present scheme, however, and there is only time to remind you of the fungus 

 floras of Saccardo, Oonstantin, Massee, and others, in this connection. 



The word ' fermentation ' usually recalls the ordinary processes concerned ui the 

 brewing of beer and the making of wines and spirits ; but we must not forget that 

 the word connotes all decompositions or alterations in the composition of organic 

 substances induced by the life-activities of Fungi, and that it is a mere accident 

 which brings alcoholic fermentation especially into prominence. 



I ventured some time ago to term alcoholic fermentation the oldest form of 

 microscopic gardening practised by man, and this seems justified by what we know 

 of the very various and very ancient processes in this connection. 



But the making of beers, wines, and spirits, as we understand them, constitutes 

 but a small part of the province of fermentation, and even when we have added 

 cider and perry, ginger-beer, and the various herb and spruce beers to the list, we 

 have by no means exhausted the tale of fermented drinks. Palm-wines of various 

 kinds, toddy, pulque, arrack, kava, and a number of tropical alcoholic fermented 

 liquors have to be included, and the koumiss and kephir of the Caucasus, the 

 curious Russian kwass, the Japanese sake, and allied rice-preparations must be 

 mentioned, to say nothing of the now almost forgotten birch-beer, mead and 

 metheglin, and various other strange fermented decoctions of our forefathers' time 

 or confined to out-of-the-way localities. 



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