74 TORREYA . ■ 



forthcoming during the height of the program is often more apparent than 

 real. Certainly it is true that many of our productive mycologists have had to 

 earn their "bread and butter" with teaching and routine duties and have 

 had left only a small percentage of their time and efforts for the kind of work 

 which they were so well qualified to pursue. 



Someone may well ask why these difficulties are raised in connection 

 with taxonomic research when they exist in so many lines of research activity. 

 There are several reasons for doing so. The source materials for taxonomic 

 research are in large part not commercial commodities. They consist of rare 

 books, separates, indexes, illustrations and specimens which are accumulated 

 only with time, patience, correspondence, and exploration. When such col- 

 lections have finally been put together in an institution they should be used 

 by more than one generation of workers in that institution. Or if that is not 

 possible some method should be worked out by which they become available 

 to succeeding investigators in other institutions. There are now in existence 

 some collections of microfungi where spore measurements and drawings 

 accompany literally hundreds of specimens. Such aids are indispensable for 

 taxonomic studies and when available not only save the time necessary to 

 duplicate them elsewhere but help to prevent errors and misconceptions. 

 There are also herbaria of fleshy fungi where great accumulations of photo- 

 graphs, drawings, and notes make them of the utmost importance to other 

 workers. This is not a plea for the centralization of mycological taxonomy. 

 It is rather to call attention to the fact that enormous resources are fre- 

 quently accumulated and then not used nor made available for use. Since our 

 modern concepts fix the application of names by types rather than by descrip- 

 tions it is a fair question whether type specimens should ever be personal 

 or institutional property. The difficulties may seem insurmountable but this 

 may not be the case. Surely we will make no progress until the workers them- 

 selves reach a keener appreciation of the situation. 



There are other factors which bear on the progress of taxonomic work 

 with the fungi. Even though a staff member may have the ability and enthu- 

 siasm to carry on work of this sort it may be, as previously indicated, difficult 

 for him to obtain the full cooperation of his institution. Projects which have 

 more evident economic aspects have always elicited more favor with adminis- 

 trative officials in our agricultural institutions. This is true in spite of the 

 obvious relation of taxonomic studies of the fungi to many phases of plant 

 pathology. It is easy to comprehend why this attitude prevailed in the early 

 days of the agricultural experiment stations but it is not so easy to see why 

 the value of fundamental work of this sort should not eventually come to be 

 recognized more generally. In very recent times approval of agricultural 

 projects depends upon evidence that results are likely to be of direct benefit 



