more glory even if of short duration, to propound a new species than 
to seek around among those known and eventually to establish the 
occurrence of an already described species in a new location.” 
“I will close this brief introduction with the following motto 
adopted from the works of Vittadini” : 
“Melius est notas exactius definire species, quam novas plerumque 
incertas proponereT* 
RESUME OF HOLLOS’ WORK. 
Lack of space prevents us from considering in detail the con¬ 
clusions reach by Hollos, which however, at this time would be super¬ 
fluous as we expect to do so successively as we present each plant. It 
is sufficient for the present to say that over Two Hundred and Thirty 
described Gastromycetes have been reduced by Hollos to Thirty. With 
most of these conclusions we are in perfect accord, and have even 
forestalled many of them in Mycological Notes. In some instances 
however, we feel Dr. Hollos has been too liberal in his view of the 
species but this is a subject for future discussion. 
181—OUR NEW LIBRARY BUILDING. 
We have just completed a commodious, modern building located 
at No. 224 West Court St, Cincinnati, Ohio, which will be exclusive¬ 
ly devoted to our library and collection. It is four stories high, and 
one floor (about 80x20 feet) is devoted entirely to specimens. Our 
specimens of “puff-balls” are contained in boxes made on the basis of 
the smallest size as a unit. This idea we borrowed from the New 
York Botanical Garden where we first saw it in operation. For the 
present w 7 e have placed no shelving excepting along the walls but a 
short calculation shows us that we have now shelf room for 61824 
specimens. By putting racks in the center of the room we can double 
the capacity. So we have abundant room for all the specimens that 
our friends may favor us with and we hope that every reader of our 
little pamphlet, will make it his or her business to pick up “puff balls” 
whenever they notice them and send them in to us It is only by ac¬ 
cumulation of abundant material from many localities that any 
thorough w r ork can be done with any branch of natural history. Let 
every one constitute himself or herself a committee of one to place 
in the building a complete series of specimens representing all the var¬ 
ious puff balls that grow in his or her immediate vicinity. 
(*) It is better to define known species more accurately than to propound new ones that are 
for the most part uncertain. 
96 
