No. 53.J 
[September, 1881. 
(fmtlLa, 
A QUARTERLY RECORD OF CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY 
AND ITS LITERATURE. 
PERSONAL NOTICE. 
Subscribers are requested to excuse delay in this number. The 
unfortunate, sudden, and severe illness of the Editor was the cause, 
and his temporary loss of the use of the right arm, added to the con- 
dition of the head, made it quite impossible to obviate the delay. 
It is hoped that he will be able to resume with the next number. 
ON MIMICRY IN FUNGI. 
By Charles B. Plowright. 
The subject of mimicry in the various kingdoms of Nature is 
one of great interest, especially since the evolutionist has shown its 
importance to the well-being, or even perhaps almost to the 
existence of certain specific forms. It may be that the more 
striking manifestations of protective mimicry are to be found in 
the animal kingdom, but all mimicry is not protective, neither is it 
by any means confined to the animal kingdom. 
Few, and comparatively feeble, have, up to the present, been 
the attempts made by mycologists to unravel the mysteries of these 
phenomena, as they are presented to us in the vast range of 
species which are included under the name of fungi. At any rate, 
however, so important is the subject of mimicry to the philoso- 
phical naturalist that almost any attempt to indicate the more im- 
portant instances of it, as presented by these low forms of vege- 
table life, can hardly fail to be interesting, however clumsy may 
be the effort. 
In working upon such a subject, as the one before us, it is 
exceedingly difficult to avoid being led away by the imagination 
beyond the limits of reason, to fancy forms which do not exist, and 
to see similarities where there are none. 
Mr. W. G. Smith, in the Gardeners' Chronicle , and Dr. M. C. 
Cooke, in Grevillea , have both written papers upon this subject, but 
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