REMARKABLE FOSSIL FUNGI 
Edward W. Berry 
(With Plates 180—182, Containing 16 Figures) 
Among the relics of former vegetation that carry the record 
back many millions of years the remains of fungi are so rarely 
found that their presence is always exceptional, although it is 
obvious that many times during the long history of the earth the 
environment has offered optimum conditions for their abundant 
development. To mention but one such occasion, that of the for- 
mation of the coal measures must have witnessed an exceedingly 
abundant mycological flora. That these plants were present thus 
early is indicated by the abundance of hyphae, and other traces of 
fungal activity such as butyric fermentation, in the tissues of 
Carboniferous vascular plants, and the scarcity of described forms 
must be attributed to the perishable nature of most fungal tissues 
and to the lack of systematic work by experienced mycologists on 
the more or less obscure material available. To be sure, quite a 
considerable number of fossil forms referred to Fungi have been 
recorded from various geologic horizons but the vast majority of 
these are leaf-spot types based upon real or fancied resemblances, 
and found on impressions of foliage and without definite botanical 
characters. Some undoubtedly represent fungal ravages, others 
are due to insects, some are glandular, and others are purely 
imaginary.^ 
Sometimes the traces of fungi preserved in petrified plant tissues 
are fortunately disclosed in sections and a number of well authen- 
ticated forms are known, principally from the Carboniferous, 
their discovery being due almost entirely to the relatively large 
amount of histological work that has been expended on the Car- 
boniferous flora. Some of the more important of these will be 
mentioned in the following pages. The exceptional conditions of 
1 For a rather complete illustrated list of all of these forms down to the 
year 1900 the student is referred to Meschinelli, A., Fungorum Fossilium 
omnum Iconographia, 1902, 144 pp., 31 pis. 
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