PEEFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 



My justification for placing another translation in our libraries 

 is that no such book as this exists in the English language, 

 and that I could not, for some considerable time, see my way 

 to collect so many observations on the cryptogamic parasites of 

 higher plants, or to find so many suitable subjects for the 

 pictorial illustration of their habits and structure, as Dr. von 

 Tubeuf has given us. The work was undertaken all the more 

 willingly, because, while working under the guidance of the 

 author, I had seen the book take shape in his hands, and even 

 added some items to its pages. 



The aims of the book are sufSciently set forth in the author's 

 preface, and in the preparation of an English edition these 

 have been kept in view. The first or general part and the 

 more important descriptions in the second part are practically 

 translations, but a certain amount of modification was found 

 necessary in adapting the work to the requirements of English 

 readers. With this object many additions were made both 

 by the author and myself. Those which I have inserted are 

 in most cases indicated by the use of (Edit.); this has, how- 

 ever, been entirely omitted in the group ' Fungi imperfecti,' 

 and nearly so in the Uredineae, on account of the number of 

 changes found necessary. I also thought it advisable to indicate 

 whether the difierent species of fungi had been recorded for 

 Britain and North America; this has been done generally by 

 the use of brackets, — (Britain and U.S. America.) The records 

 for Britain are taken from the works of Plowright, Massee, and 

 others ; those of three groups, — the Uredineae, Basidiomycetes, 

 and ' Fungi imperfecti ' were, however, revised by Professor J. 

 W. H. Trail of Aberdeen, a well-known authority. For America 



