204 



Mycologia 



include a large part of the Discomycetes and various other forms 

 was usual "before the time of Linnaeus and not uncommon for 

 many years after him. In the first editions of Flora Suecica 

 (1745), Genera Plantarum (1737), and Species Plantarum 

 (1753) Linnaeus spelled the name Elvela. In the second edi- 

 tion of Flora Suecica (1755), he used Elvella. He offers no 

 explanation of why he twice changed the spelling of the name 

 nor from what source he originally took it. Phillips offers this 

 rather unsatisfactory explanation of its origin, that it was a 

 Latin word used by Cicero to denote some kind of fungus. The 

 etymology of the word is uncertain. All three methods of spell- 

 ing it have been used by various writers but the majority since 

 the beginning of the last century, including Persoon and Fries 

 have used Helvetia. Seaver, in a recent article has returned to 

 the original spelling Elvela. In the present paper the orthog- 

 raphy of Fries is followed. 



At most, we owe nothing but the name to Linnaeus ; he con- 

 tributed nothing to our knowledge of the species included. He 

 united all of them under the specific name Mitra (except EL 

 Pineti, which is not a Helvetia at all as understood by modern 

 mycologists). One secures more information in regard to the 

 species of the genus from the works of previous writers than 

 from Linnaeus. Thus Michelius in 1729 had already grouped 

 the species of Helvetia in much the same sense as we now know 

 them in the section Fungoiclea fungiformia of his genus Fun- 

 goides. Each of the nine species in this section is briefly described 

 and three of them are well illustrated. Even before the time of 

 Michelius one finds some good descriptions by Rajus (1704), 

 Porta (1592), Clusius (1583), and others. These fungi seem 

 to have been subjects of considerable interest to the older botan- 

 ists and hence were frequently described and figured. But in 

 this early literature one finds them not under the genus name 

 Helvetia, but under Boletus, Phallus, Fungoides, Morchella, Bo- 

 leto-lichen, etc. 



During the period between the appearance of Linnaeus' Species 

 Plantarum and the publication of Fries' Systema Mycologicum, 

 knowledge of the genus was greatly advanced by the works of 



