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 been 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 Linnsean 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 havo 

 expressed. 



The conditions which determine the distribution of fungi are 

 not precisely those which determine the distribution of the 

 higher 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. 



