VI PREFACE. 



and an Appendix supplied^ whicli, I doubt not^ will 

 render the work more acceptable to the Botanical 

 student. In reference to this latter feature I may 

 observe that descriptions of the species of British 

 Microscopic Fungi^ in a collected and systematic 

 form^ have not been published since the year 1836^ 

 when the second part of the fifth volume of the 

 English Flora appeared. I need scarcely add that 

 during thirty years the progress of Mycological 

 science left much to be improved_, amended^ can- 

 celled^ or extended in that work^ and created a want 

 which it is hoped that this Appendix will in part 

 supply. The ^^ Outlines of British Fungology/^ 

 published in 1860^ only contained the names and 

 habitats of the Microscopic Fungi ; some of these 

 had never been described^ and others had their de- 

 scriptions scattered through the Continental bo- 

 tanical literature of the last quarter of a century. I 

 cannot refrain from acknowledging my obligations 

 to the Eev. M. J. Berkeley for the cordial and 

 courteous manner in which he has assisted me by 

 furnishing descriptions of his own MSS. species^ as 

 well as by communicating information of others 

 now first recorded^ on his authority^ as occurring in 

 Britain. Other species^ either entirely new or not 

 before noticed in this country^ rest on my own 



