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NOTE ON FUNGI EXSICCATI. 
It is only during the past few years that the idle habit has come 
into vogue of publishing specimens in exsiccati, loosely enclosed 
in envelopes. We have heretofore protested against this innova- 
tion, and, with increased experience, we do so again, as a most 
vicious practice and one likely to produce very serious consequences, 
especially in public herbaria. In fact, we should strongly recommend 
the conservators of public herbaria not to purchase such exsiccati, 
or, if purchasing them, by no means to incorporate them, until 
every specimen is fixed. That this is not a mere prejudice on our 
part we think may be inferred from the following three reasons 
which should either of them be sufficient to condemn the present 
practice : — 
I. — It is impossible to preserve specimens enclosed in envelopes 
from the insidious attacks of insects, which, if the specimens were 
fixed and exposed, would either not attack them at all, or if 
attacking, might be readily recognised and their ravages checked. 
This is not mere theory. It is the result of a long experience of 
large herbaria of fungi. Neither at the British Museum, nor at 
Kew, nor in the magnificent herbarium of the Rev M. J. Berkeley 
are the specimens loose in packets, but permanently affixed. 
II. — Because specimens not affixed, but loosely enclosed in 
envelopes, are easily removed, exchanged, or mixed, so that in a 
short time they must cease to be absolutely authentic, and thus 
lose half their value. If securely attached, as in the case of the 
“ Scleromyces ” of Fries, the specimens of Kunze, mostly of 
Desmazieres, and other earlier exsiccati, the specimen is identified 
with the individual issuing it, and there is not the slightest doubt 
of its authenticity ; but now that specimens can be removed from 
five or six envelopes simultaneously for comparison, who can 
possibly guarantee that any one of them is returned again to its 
proper envelope ? It is a most certain fact that in a herbarium 
specimens must eventually, by accident or otherwise, become so 
mixed, or suspected of being mixed, which is equally subversive of 
all confidence in their authenticity. We have in mind as we write 
certain specimens of Stereum , Polyporus , &c., fastened securely to 
paper, with the names written in characteristic caligraphy, by the 
late and illustrious Fries. After forty years these specimens are 
still as authentic as ever! Would they have been so had they 
been enclosed loosely in envelopes ? Can any comparison be insti- 
tuted between the intrinsic value of specimens so securely 
authenticated and modern exsiccati, with the specimens loose or 
lost ? Mycologists, careful of their reputation in the future, could 
scarce desire to maintain a system fraught with such grave danger, 
III. — Because the specimens themselves, by facility of handling, 
and without protection such as is afforded by glueing firmly to 
paper, are soon injured, discoloured, broken, and ultimately 
