(375) 
1904, and a revision, embodying a few slight changes, in the 
same journal for April, 1907. 
This code has been followed in the selection of the generic 
names which are adopted in this paper. It has resulted in 
the rejection, owing to the errors of earlier authors, of a 
number of names which have become familiar to us. Still 
more unfortunately it necessitates the shifting of certain other 
names from the groups to which they have been applied in 
recent times to other and entirely different groups. The 
necessity for such changes is exceedingly regrettable, but the 
inconceivable confusion revealed by even a casual study of 
the literature of this group of plants shows that the consistent 
following of any possible set of rules will inevitably result in 
the making of many similar changes. It must be admitted 
that the selection of type species for the older genera, as 
provided inthe canons of the above code, is at best often arbi- 
trary. This is necessarily so, since the idea of the type of a 
genus held by its author was a mental concept and not a 
concrete species. It is believed, however, that the provisions 
of the code are so clear that in the great majority of cases 
the same result would necessarily be reached by any con- 
scientious worker. Furthermore it is firmly believed that 
what may well be called heroic measures are necessary to 
bring order and stability out of a condition that can only be 
described by the word chaotic. The argument which is so 
often advanced that ‘‘ existing usage” is in itself a sufficient 
warrant for the continued use of a name can well be met, in 
the case of this family at least, by the statement that there is 
no ‘‘ existing usage.” By referring to the two most recent 
and authoritative general works on the fungi we find that 
Saccardo, in the Sylloge Fungorum, recognizes 82 genera of 
gill fungi, but of these only 50 per cent. are to be found in 
Engler & Prantl’s Pfanzenfamilten. Of the 54 genera 
found in the latter work 28 per cent. have names not used 
by Saccardo. 
Tournefort ([nstitutiones) in 1700 included all the stalked 
pileate fungi, whether they had lamellae or not, in the genus 
