66 T O R R E Y A 



species which are now distributed to at least nine families. Tournefourt, in the 

 latter part of the 17th century, made a considerable contribution to the genus 

 concept. He recognized six genera of fungi and one of lichens. Dillenius and 

 Vaillant added some genera and the latter published illustrations which were 

 a real contribution to the study of the fungi. He maintained the genus Fungus 

 in which were included most of the forms of the family Agaricaceae. 



The foremost pre-Linnaean student of the fungi was Micheli. By the time 

 of the publication of his "Nova plantera genera" in 1729 the microscope had 

 become a working-aid and he made use of it. His work was excellent for the 

 time. It included consideration of the genera of flowering plants, ferns, mosses, 

 lichens, algae, and fungi. Both large and small forms of fungi were given con- 

 sideration. He germinated and grew spores of the larger fungi and observed 

 both mycelium and sporophores. 



The early workers who studied the microfungi under the microscope rather 

 naturally tried to interpret them in the light of their knowledge of the parts of 

 flowering plants. In the case of the bread-molds the sporangia seemed like 

 little fruiting pods containing seeds. By analogy rust spores were similarly 

 interpreted although the situation there was not so easily demonstrated as with 

 the molds. In 1807 DeCandolle, referring to the spores of Uromyces and 

 Uredo, said that "with a microscope this powder seems composed of ovoid or 

 globular spores .... filled with many small grains that are considered spores." 

 He thought that a teliospore might contain at least 100 such "spores." This 

 interpretation prevailed among such workers as Fries, Leveille, and the 

 Tulasne brothers, and persisted until the time of De Bar}- in the middle of the 

 19th century. 



Linnaeus set himself the task of bringing together in his "Species 

 Plantarum" (1753) all the known species of the plant world. He included the 

 fungi in his class Cryptogamia but it cannot be said that he advanced the 

 knowledge of them to any appreciable extent. 



The first author to make a distinct advance in the classification of the fungi 

 after the beginning of binomial nomenclature was Persoon. In a paper 

 published in 1794 (Xeuer Versuch einer Sytematischen Eintheilung der 

 Schwamme, Romer's Neues Alag. Bot. 1 : 63-128) he recognized 77 genera 

 of fungi, which he placed in two classes : Angiothecium and Gymnothecium. 

 The three genera of rusts, which were included, were the first rust genera to be 

 established after the solitary rust genus of ]\Iicheli 65 years before. Several 

 authors of important works during the first quarter of the nineteenth century 

 followed Persoon's classification in the main. Among these were Schumacher, 

 Rebentish, Albertini and Schweinitz, De Candolle, and Brongniart. During 

 the same period Link brought out a new classification which was accepted 

 wholly or in part by Schlechtendal, S. F. Gray, and Wallroth. 



