
1891.] The Comparative Morphology of the Fungi. 1055 
“hy, 
THE COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF THE FUNGI 
BY, JAMES ELLIS HUMPHREY. 
NTIL a very recent date the whole history of the truly 
morphological study of the fungi might have been epit- 
omized in the mention of two names,—Tulasne and DeBary. 
Beginning with the earlier publications of the brothers Tulasne, 
which culminated in their monumental “ Selecta Fungorum Car- 
pologia,” and continued in the “ Beitrage zur Morphologie der 
Pilze” and other works of DeBary and his students, the contribu- 
tions to our knowledge of the structure of the fungi, their poly- 
morphic fruit forms and their genetic relationships, have increased 
in number and importance. But the time has come when to the 
names mentioned must be added a third,—that of a pupil of De- 
Bary, though for a long time not of his “school.” It is now nearly 
twenty years since there appeared the first of a series of quarto 
memoirs, of which the tenth has just been issued, which give 
their author his conspicuous rank among myco-morphologists. 
The first six of the series may be regarded as preliminary studies, 
which. contain the early views of their author, and record the 
‘dawnings of the broad morphological ideas which are developed 
in their completeness in the last four numbers. Itis the primary 
purpose of this paper to present in outline to American readers the 
results and conclusions contained in these last four parts of the 
“Untersuchungen aus dem Gesammtgebiete der Mykologie” ' of 
Prof. Brefeld, of the German Academy at Minster, in Westphalia. 
The parts named comprise 884 pages of text, with 37 litho- 
graphed plates, and their very bulk is perhaps a sufficient 
excuse for the present abstract; while the importance of their 
contents and the light which they throw on many heretofore 
doubtful forms and problems render at least a general knowledge 
-of them of the greatest importance to any one who would keep him- 
1 Untersuchungen aus dem Gesammtgebiete der Mykologie. Von Dr. Oscar Brefeld, 
Ord. Professor der Botanik, etc. VII. and VIII. Hefte, Basidiomyceten. Leipzig, 
-1888-'89, IX, and X. Hefte, Die Hemiasci und die Ascomyceten. Münster, 1891. 

