18 
THE REV. M. J. BERKELEY. 
tagne, Trog, Vittadini, Corda, &c., were amongst his correspon- 
dents, and to the last he was opposed to any innovations on what 
they taught, although controversy was his great aversion. He has 
often expressed himself in our hearing, as one who disliked con- 
troversy because it consumed so much time, which might be turned 
to better account, and which was calculated to raise rather than to 
assuage ill-feeling. 
It was surprising, even to his friends, how cyclopaedic was his 
knowledge, whether of the pedigree of a racehorse, or the pedigree 
of a garden flower, and what a large amount of work he could 
accomplish. In this he was assisted by an extraordinary memory, 
and, perhaps, trusted too much to memory in latter years, when it 
did not possess all its old vigour. 
Undoubtedly the “ Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany,” pub- 
lished in 1857, was a valuable and learned work, but so heavy and 
compact in style that only very advanced students could make use of 
it with advantage. Because it was heavy and dull it never got beyond 
a first edition, and not because it failed in accuracy or method. 
At first, and when a young man, he devoted himself to 
entomology, but ultimately his principal attention was devoted to 
the diseases of plants, including fungi, with occasional diversions 
in favour of British Algae and mosses. It is in connection with 
fungi that his name will be best known to our readers, and as the 
“ Prince of British Mycologists ” his name will go down to 
posterity. Not until he was past eighty years of age did he wholly 
abandon his work with fungi, although his Herbarium was sent 
away in 1879. No absolute estimate could be made of the number of 
new species of fungi which were first described either by Berkeley 
alone, or in conjunction with others, during an active half century. 
An approximation may, perhaps, be made when the last volume of 
Saccardo’s “ Sylloge ” is published. There are not less than five 
thousand types in the Berkeley Herbarium, now located in the 
Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, Kew, and there are other types 
in the general Herbarium which are not to be found in the 
Berkeley Herbarium. North American Fungi, contributed by 
Curtis, Sprague, Ravenal, and others, were lor the most part 
described in the early volumes of this Journal. Ceylon Fungi, 
contributed by Dr. Thwaites, and in many cases accompanied by 
coloured drawings, were described in the “ Linnean Journal,” as 
were also the Cuban Fungi collected by Wright. The Indian col- 
lections, made by Sir J. D. Hooker and others, were published in 
Hooker’s “ Journal of Botany.” Australian Fungi, contributed by 
Baron von Mueller, F. M. Bailey, and others, were described in the 
“ Transactions ” and the “ Journal of the Linnean Society,” whilst 
the Fungi of Tasmania and New Zealand were recorded in 
Hooker’s “ Floras ” of those countries. Besides the above, and 
the “ Challenger ” collections, numerous smaller collections were 
determined and published from time to time partly in the three 
series of Hooker’s “ Journal of Botany ” and partly in the 
“ Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” the Journal, and 
