INTRODUCTION. 
XXV11 
Threads free, not anastomosing . . Trichea. 
Threads attached, with free ends, or 
combined in a network .... Arcyrieee. 
Wall of sporangium with external deposit of lime. 
Capillitium present 1 . 1 t H o d r. I! M e .1: . 
Threads witliont lime Didymea. 
Threads containing lime Physareee. 
The above arrangement differs from that adopted by Rosta- 
finski, and most of the continental botanists, especially as to 
the sequence of the orders and suborders ; but in detail there 
is little difference in the alliance and limitation of genera and 
species. 
Thus much we have considered it advisable to provide for 
ihe benefit of the uninitiated, as a prelude or introduction to 
the technical descriptions which follow, and although brief and 
insufficient for such as may be entirely ignorant of the orga- 
nisms treated of in this volume, yet probably welcome to those 
who have acquired a little knowledge and interest in an obscure 
and somewhat neglected branch of botanical science. A com- 
plete and satisfactory introduction to the study could scai’cely 
have been accomplished in less space than is contained within 
the covers of this book, which would have been foreign to its 
original scope and design. 
It would be difficult to estimate the number of Australian 
species of fungi which are really edible, since in very few 
Instances can we go further than those which are known to be 
edible in Europe, and hence it can only be affirmed with 
certainty that there are nearly seventy species, in all, which 
can be relied upon. Of these, beside the common mushroom, 
are the well-known Cantharellus cibarius, the beautiful Corii- 
narius violaceits, the very useful Coprinus comatus, the European 
Bydnum repandum, and cnralloides ; several kinds of Clavaria, 
including bparassis crispa ; some Boleti, such as Boletus edulis , 
Boletus granulatus ; half-a-dozen species of Beziza, and un- 
doubtedly all the species of Morchella, or the “Morels.” But 
there is no true Truffle at present known, and, if the Mylitta is 
edible at all, which in its dried state seems to be impossible, 
there is no account of it, or its properties, known to us. 
Possibly some of the Lycoperdons are harmless enough, in 
their young and juicy condition, but there is something very 
suspicious, not to say repulsive, in the odour of the species of 
Glathrus, that it seems hard to believe that Clathrus cibarius is 
Worthy of its reputation as an edible species. The gastronomic 
value must be determined in the Colonies, although we would 
advise the utmost caution in such experiments. 
Of deleterious species there are, unfortunately, many, not so 
much toxicological as pestiferous, and in this we allude to 
those minute species which attack, and destroy, plants of 
economic value, such as the vine diseases, apple scab, tobacco 
mildew, and many others, which it is beyond the province of 
