THE COLLECTION OF DANISH FUNGI LEFT BY THE LATE 

 PROFESSOR E. ROSTRUP. 



SHORTLY after the death of Professor E. Rostrup Ph. D. which occurs 

 red on January 16. 1907 I was intrusted with the honourable task 

 of preparing a list of all the species of Danish fungi found in his her* 

 barium. This herbarium was acquired by the University of Copenhagen 

 and has been included in the Botanical Museum of the University. On 

 account of the copiousness of this herbarium the list will comprise all 

 species of fungi which have hitherto been found in Denmark as far as 

 concerns the groups of fungi with which Rostrup was mostly occupied. 

 However, in preparing the list I have also endeavoured to point out 

 what an uncommonly diligent man and accurate researcher Rostrup 

 has been. It was my intention in this way to establish a memorial in 

 honour of E. Rostrup as a mycologist and phytopathologist which shall 

 bear witness in foreign countries to the modest and laborious man 

 whose significance to science was never fully understood there because 

 he mostly wrote in Danish. I shall give no biography of E. Rostrup, 

 several having already been published or beeing under preparation, I 

 shall only give a short outline of the work of Rostrup as a mycologist 

 and phytopathologist. 



Rostrup's reason for turning to the study of fungi must be sought 

 in his great love for nature, his immense interest in all living things 

 in field and wood, his desire for knowing the names of all the creatures 

 he saw. In his earlier years Rostrup occupied himself very much with 

 the singing birds, their splendid plumage and their beautiful singing; 

 he was thoroughly familiar with all the flowering plants of Denmark 

 and published, in 1860, his wellknown and much appriciated "Vejled* 

 ning i den danske Flora" (Guide of the Danish Flora). Having finished 

 this work Rostrup began to observe the lower plants, and during his 

 daily walks in the neighbourhood of Skaarup in the south of the 

 fertile Island of Funen his attention was drawn to the multi^coulored 

 toadstools, the queerly shaped Hydnaceae and the stout Polyporaceae 

 on the trunks of the trees. Rostrup began his study of fungi on August 

 31. 1860. On his first excurcions he chiefly collected the gay Agarica* 



J. Lind: Danish fungi. 1 



