INTRODUCTION. 
XI 
650, but in this pi-cscnt work A 78 species are enumerated, or 
more than one-fourth of the whole, for the Colonies ; whilst in 
the British Islands only 75 are included in Massee’s “ Mono- 
graph,” which is only less than one-eighth of the total described 
species. From this we conclude that Gastromycetes are unusually 
strong in Australia, certainly including some interesting genera, 
not hitherto discovered elsewhere, but weak in subterranean 
species. 
Accepting 3,500 as the total of known Discomycetes, the 
Australian catalogue of 133 species is essentially small, being 
only one twenty-sixth of the whole, whereas in Great Britain 
the number is not less than six hundred, and perhaps more, or 
about one-sixth of the whole. This is accounted for, as in the 
remaining orders, by the preponderance of minute species, 
hardly distinguishable by the naked eye. In the Fyrenomycetes 
the dearth of species is no less remarkable, for, out of a total 
of no less than 7,500, not more than 200, or one thirty-seventh 
part, are recorded for the Australian Colonies, but not less than 
1)00 are found in the British Isles, or at least one-eighth of the 
total number of recorded species. With the remaining orders 
it is unnecessary to institute comparisons, as they are also 
minute species, and the catalogue for the Colonies is very 
rudimentary and imperfect. It may be taken for granted that 
of the species which require the use of a pocket lens for their 
detection, a large held for discovery still lies open, and it is in 
this direction that the most numerous additions to the “ Hand- 
book ” might be made. It is quite probable that, in the course 
of a few years, by working up the minute species, the total 
number contained in this volume would be more than doubled, 
even without the investigation of unexplored districts. 
Curious facts in geographical distribution are constantly pre- 
senting themselves to those who have any extensive experience 
in the plants, especially the fungi, of distant regions. It is of 
common knowledge that such species as Schizophyllum commune, 
Pomes lucidus, Polystictus occidentalis, Polystictus sanguineus , 
Stereum lobatum, and some others, are to be met with in all 
countries, from warm temperate to the equator, but there are 
many species which are not by any means so common, or widely 
distributed, which occur only in countries far apart, and with 
broad expanses of ocean between them. There is no better 
illustration of this than the occurrence of Ceylon species of 
fungi in Australia. This is not confined to one or two species, 
but is manifest in several species, of which we will proceed to 
instance a few. There are Agarious ( Lepiota ) dolichaulos, B. & 
Br., Agaricus ( Lepiota ) leontoderes, B. & Br., Agaricus ( Lepiota ) 
aspratus, B., Agaricus ( Lepiota ) lepidophorus, B. & Br., Agaricus 
( Lepiota ) rhyparophorus, B. & Br., all Ceylon species of Lepiota , 
which occur also in some parts of Australia. In scarcely any 
other subgenus of Agaricus are so many Ceylon species found 
outside the limits of the island. What are the special con- 
