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ART. XVII. — A Commentary on the Synopsis Fungorum in America Boreali media 



degentium, by L. D. de Schweinitz. 



By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M. A., F.L.S., and the Rev. M. A. Curtis, F. A. A. A. S. 



With a view to place the Mycology of* the United States on a firm and stable 

 foundation, a careful examination of most of the species which still exist in the 

 Herbarium of Schweinitz has been instituted by the authors of the present Memoir. 

 Free access has been also had to the numerous authentic specimens in the Herbarium 

 of Sir Win. Hooker, and Prof. Torrey has kindly presented us the collection given 

 him by Schweinitz. About a fourth of the species have passed under review, and as 

 the examination of the remainder must necessarily be a work of time, we think it 

 best to publish the present by way of instalment. When the whole has been 

 reviewed, we hope to be in a position to give a complete Mycology of the United 

 States, for which we have immense materials. As Schweinitz did not possess types 

 of the greater part of the European species, it was impossible that he should not have 

 made many mistakes in the determination of species ; but though we have been 

 compelled to differ frequently from him in his diagnoses, the species which he has 

 published as new, with few exceptions, still hold their place in science, and present 

 numberless points of interest as regards structure and affinity. He was, however, 

 very far from exhausting the treasures of the American forests. We have in our 

 possession a host of new species, equal in interest to those which first gave so high a 

 character to American Fungi; and a review of these authentic specimens has, in only 

 a very few instances, compelled us to change our nomenclature. There will be no 

 longer delay in the publication of the remainder of our commentary, than unavoidable 

 circumstances may necessitate. 



** When our paper upon the Exotic Fungi of the Schweinitzian Herbarium (see 

 Journ. Acad. ii. p. 277) was written, we had not ascertained from whom the Surinam 

 species were procured, there being no recognition of the collector upon the tickets. 

 We have since learned that the collection was made by Dr. Hering, now a distin- 

 guished Homoeopathic Physician of Philadelphia. Dr. Schweinitz had evidently 

 intended to commemorate this gentleman's services in Natural History by naming 

 for him the genus since published by Berkeley under the name of Hypolyssus. (See 

 Exot. b'un^,. No. 15.) Heringia is now devoted by Agardh to a genus of Alga?. 



