Anniversary Address, 9 



En Vol. V. of the British Flora, published in 1$36, Berkeley 

 had given descriptions of a considerable number, but a still 

 greater number were not mentioned at all. The older books, 

 such as those of Withering and Bolton, were even more un- 

 satisfactory. The first really useful book for the ordinary 

 student that appeared in English was the Outlines of British 

 Fungology by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, a man who has done 

 more for tin 1 study of Fungi in this country than any one 

 else. It was published in 1860. But it contained consider- 

 ably less than half the species of the genus Agaricus that 

 are now recognised as British. The next book of the kind 

 appeared in 1871— the Handbook of British Fungi, by Dr. 

 M. C. Cooke, now out of print. It contains about 100 more 

 of the Agarici than the Outlines did — 4o:> in all, and with its 

 help the student could make some progress, though he was 

 continually meeting with species as to which it contained 

 no information. Fortunately he was not altogether depend- 

 ent on English works on Fungi. He could go himself to the 

 quarry which all Fungologists in Europe were digging from. 

 He could make direct reference to the works of Elias Fries. 

 That eminent man, a Swede like Linneeus, had devoted him- 

 self almost from boyhood to the study of Fungi, and during 

 his long life he published many contributions to its more 

 complete and s^vsteinatic study. The first of these appeared 

 as far back as 1815, and the last of them nearly 60 years 

 afterwards, in 1874, when he was 81 years of age. I need 

 only mention two of them here, both of prime importance 

 to the student. The first is his Monographic Hymenomy- 

 cetwn Sttecice, containing a large number of species very 

 full}' and admirably described in excellent Latin. It was 

 published in 1857, but as the edition consisted originally of 

 only 100 copies, and these are scattered over the whole of 

 Europe, it has become so exceedingly scarce as to be practi- 

 cally unattainable. I had the greatest difficulty in obtaining, 

 bit by bit, a copy of it for myself. The other book of Fries, 

 which is also a chief authority on the subject, can still be 

 got at a moderate rate. It is the 2nd edition of his Hymen- 

 oniycetes Europcei, published at Upsala in 1874, and also 



