GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 267 
gating the Mycologic Flora of this rich and fertile region. In 
Central America very small and incomplete collections have as 
yet been made, and the same may be said of South America and 
Canada. Of the whole extent of the New World, only the 
Carolina States of North America can really be said to be satis- 
factorily known. Asia is still less known, the whole of our vast 
Indian Empire being represented by the collections made by 
Dr. Hooker in the Sikkim Himalayas, and a few isolated speci- 
mens from other parts. Ceylon has recently becn removed from 
the category of the unknown by the publication of its Mycologic 
Flora.* All that is known of Java is supplied by the researches 
of Junghuhn; whilst all the rest is completely unknown, includ- 
ing China, Japan, Siam, the Malayan Peninsula, Burmah, and 
the whole of the countries in the north and west of India. A 
little is known of the Philippines, and the Indian Archipelago, 
but this knowledge is too fragmentary to be of much service. 
In Africa no part has been properly explored, with the exception 
of Algeria, although something is known of the Cape of Good 
Hope and Natal. The Australasian Islands are better repre- 
sented in the Floras published of those regions. Cuba and the 
West Indies generally are moderately well known from the 
collections of Mr. C. Wright, which have been recorded in the 
journal of the Linnean Society, and in the same journal Mr. 
Berkeley has described many Australian species. 
It will be seen from the above summary how unsatisfactory 
it must be to give anything like a general view of the geographi- 
cal distribution of fungi, or to estimate at all approximately 
the number of species on the globe. Any attempt, therefore, 
must be made and accepted subject to the limitations we have 
expressed, 
The conditions which determine the distribntion of fungi are 
not precisely those which determine the distribution of the 
highcr plants. In the case of the parasitic species they may be 
said to follow the distribution of their foster-plants, as in the 
case of the rust, smut, and mildew of the cultivated cereals, 
* Berkeley and Broome, ‘‘ Enumeration of the Fungi of Ceylon,” in *¢ Journ. 
Linn. Soc.” xiv. Nos. 73, 74, 1873. 
