Vol. 2 No. i 



TORREYA 



January, 1002 



LIBRARY 



CONSERVATION OF ENERGY IN MYCO- NEW Y0 



LOGICAL CLUBS ^f 



GARDEN 



By Lucien M. Underwood 



When the mycological club idea first swept over the country 

 it was thought by some of the less sanguine that like many other 

 fads the interest would soon die out, but the amount of vitality 

 possessed by some of the clubs shows an increasing instead of a 

 decreasing interest. And in some of the clubs certain of the 

 members have done some most interesting work ; not only have 

 they made themselves familiar with numerous species in the field 

 but they have also been led in some cases to make permanent 

 records of the characters of these perishable plants. The amount of 

 energy that is put forward in a summer by any one of these clubs 

 is astounding when considered in the aggregate and if only con- 

 served and turned toward the accomplishment of a single point 

 or a few objective points would soon place us in possession of most 

 valuable information relative to our fungus-flora. One of the 

 most needed works is a descriptive manual small enough to be 

 taken into the field for study and complete enough to contain all 

 the known American species of the plants it attempts to describe 

 and provided with usable keys or synopses that will surely lead 

 rather than mislead the beginner. Of beginners' books we 

 already have a sufficiency. To make possible such a work as 

 suggested will involve time and patient work, but the small army 

 of mycological club members could add very material contribu- 

 tions to such a work arid hasten its preparation by following the 

 lead of some suggestions. In order to accomplish this as any 

 other task it will require a deal of patient labor on the part of 

 collectors and a good deal of what has been called " dead work." 



[The exact date of publication of each issue of Torreya is given in the succeed- 

 ing number. Vol. 1, No. 12, comprising pages 137-156, was issued December 28, 

 1901.] (1) 



