22 



Descriptio et adumbratio microscopico-analytica 



Fungorum 



Aliarumque plantarum ciyptogamicarum ad 



eorum familiam pertinentium. 



Auctore 



D. Romano Adolpho Hedwigio 



Professori Botaftices in Academia literarum Lipsiensi ; multa- 

 rumque societatum literarum socio. 



" This remarkable work has never been published," wrote M. 

 C. de Candolle recently, in reply to an inquiry sent from London, 

 " owing to various circumstances which you will find fully stated 

 in m}' grandfather's ' Memoires et Souvenirs,' page 143." From 

 this source part of the facts now to be presented, were taken, al- 

 though .the work is not so explicit as one could wish. Other 

 published facts have been obtained from scattered sources, and 

 for additional information I am indebted to M. Aug. de Candolle. 



A strong friendship had sprung up between A. P. de Candolle, 

 the first of that renowned family of botanists, and Adolph Hed- 

 wig, who was of about the same age, and at the time was pro- 

 fessor of botany at Leipzig, having succeeded his father, the dis- 

 tinguished bryologist. It was in honor of the elder Hedwig 

 that the journal Hedwioia was named. Hedwig, the younger, 

 had begun a monograph of the ferns, and in exchange for speci- 

 mens from the Antilles and elsewhere had sent to de Candolle 

 an authentic set of mosses from the collection that had belonged 

 to his father, which proved of great service in the revision of the 

 Flore Fran^aise. An interesting correspondence ensued, carried 

 on in Latin. 



In the meantime I Icdwig had prepared a work on the parasitic 

 fungi, and as dc Candolle .says, " with a true talent." Me desired 

 to have this published in Paris and intrusted the manuscript to 

 his very warm friend, A. 1'. de Cantioiic. It was placed in the 

 hands of Garnery. who was issuing de Candolle's sumptuous 

 work on succulent plants. For some reason Garnery did not 

 take kindly to the new enterprise and delayed its beginning. De 



