XIIt. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
UNFORTUNATELY no complete or satisfactory account can be given 
of the geographical distribution of fungi. The younger Fries,* 
with all the facilitics at his disposal which the lengthened 
experience and large collections of his father afforded, could only 
give a very imperfect outline, and now we can add very little 
to what he has given. The cause of this difliculty lies in the 
fact that the Mycologic Flora of so large a portion of the world 
remains unexplored, not only in remote regions, but even in 
civilized countries where the Phanerogamic Flora is well known. 
Europe, England, Scotland, and Wales are as well explored as 
any other country, but Ireland is comparatively unknown, no 
complete collection having ever been made, or any at least 
published. Scandinavia has also been well examined, and the 
northern portions of France, with Belgium, some parts of Ger- 
many and Austria, in Russia the neighbourhood of St. Peters- 
burg, and parts of Italy and Switzerland. Turkey in Europe, 
nearly all Russia, Spain, and Portugal are almost unknown. As 
to North America, considerable advances have been made since 
Schweinitz by Messrs. Curtis and Ravenel, but their collections 
in Carolina cannot be supposed to represent the whole of the 
United States; the small collections made in Texas, Mexico, 
ete., only serve to show the richness of the country, not yet half 
exhausted. It is to be hoped that the young race of botanists 
in the United States will apply themsclves to the task of investi- 
* Mr. E. P. Fries, in ‘‘ Ann. des Sci. Nat.” 1861, xv. p. 10. 
