Krieger: History of Mycological Illustration 319 



"Traite des Champignons" (1793ft), with very inferior plates. 

 Sowerby, in England, was publishing, from 1795 to 181 5, the 

 " Couloured Figures of English Fungi" (1795), which, with 

 Greville's later " Scottish Cryptogamic Flora" (1823), represents 

 the best that Britain has produced in the line of fungous illustra- 

 tions — Cooke's " Illustrations " (1881ft) notwithstanding. 6 



It must be noted here that Bulliard's set often lacks plates 

 601 and 602. These were re-issued by Raspail (1840); and 

 Letellier (1 829ft) began a continuation of the "Herbier" by 

 publishing, without text, a series of plates numbered from 603 

 to 710. Letellier's series is extremely rare, and the illustrations 

 are inferior to those of Bulliard. Still worse is a series of 425 

 plates by Captain Lucand, 1881 to 1896, also intended as a con- 

 tinuation of Bulliard (1881c?). 



Paulet's "Traite" (1793ft) is almost never to be had with its 

 plates. Leveille, in 1855, therefore, re-issued the 207 numbers, 

 with no improvement in quality (1855). 



With the dawn of the nineteenth century — in 1801 — systematic 

 mycology had its real beginning. All mycologists will recall that, 

 in 1900, certain gentlemen of a conservative turn of mind as- 

 sembled in the city, of Brussels to fix a starting-point for the 

 nomenclature of the fungi. After hearing the report of a com- 

 mittee (1910a, c, d), it was decided to take as a starting-point 

 Elias Fries' Systema Mycologicum (1821). Two years before, 

 at the 1908 meeting of the Botanical Society of America held in 

 Baltimore, one voice, that of Prof. Elias J. Durand (1909a, ft), 

 was raised in favor of Christian Heinrich Persoon's " Synopsis 

 Methodica Fungorum" (1801). Working in an attic in a poor 

 quarter of Paris, this genius with infinite labor sifted the litera- 

 ture of the ages and, for the first time, brought order out of 

 chaos. One hundred and nine years later, a Botanical Congress 

 refused to recognize his great work. It is to be hoped that there 

 will yet be a real International Botanical Congress which will 

 deal with this subject with more reason and justice. 



e Mr. Carlton. Rea's " Monograph of the British Basidiomyceteae," the 

 publication of which has just been announced, will undoubtedly add further 

 luster to British illustrative mycology. 



