1886.] 
ELIAS MAGNUS FRIES. 
JKl 
he was industriously collecting? and working on his fungi. In 1814, he 
took his degree at Lund, and was immediately nominated ‘‘ Docens ” of 
botany in that university. His first publication, begun during that year, 
seems to have been in phsenogamic botany, and w^as entitled, Koviti^ 
Flor^ Sueci^:. But in 1815 he published the lirst part of Observa- 
TiONES Mycolouic^, based chiefly on collections made during his uni¬ 
versity course, the second volume appearing in 1818. He was preparing 
other papers at the same time on both phsenogamic and cryptogamic 
plants. His keenly-discriminating mind soon saw that the classification 
previously established for the lower plants was exceedingly defective. 
He therefore began, when he was not yet twenty-two, a systematic re¬ 
view of all the fungi known to him. The result was more extended and 
accurate descriptions of species, based on the morphology of the parts, 
taking into account, also, the life and development of the fungus, 
wherever that was possible. In theory, his new system of classitication 
also was thoroughly scientific and in line with the most advanced views 
of the day in regard to systematic botany. It was hailed by all lovers of 
the subject as the true basis for the scientific study of the lower plants. 
The publication of this work was begun, it must be remembered, twelve 
years before the compound microscope was brought into use. I^otwith- 
standing the cordial reception of his new system and his recent work, 
the indomitable spirit of Fries did not rest satisfied ; in 1829, therefore, 
having completed his first great work on fungi, Systema Mycologicum, 
in three volumes, he again revised all his species and descriptions with 
great care, to test the value of his theoretic conclusions. As he had now 
begun to pay more especial attention to the Hymenomycetes, a third careful 
survey of this group resulted in his Epicrisis Systematis Mycologici, 
SEU Synopsis Hv^menomycetum, published in 1836-38. In 1844, the 
Royal Academy of Science, at Stockholm, proposed to bear the expense 
of a series of colored engravings of all the higher fungi, to be made by 
or under the supervision of Professor Fries. For this work he again 
went over all the material obtainable, and the first series of these elab¬ 
orate figures was published between 1867 and 1875, consisting of 
KK) folio plates, and entitled, Icones Select.^ Hymenomycetum 
nondum DELiNEATORini. At the time of his death, a large number of 
additional plates had accumulated, and a second similar series, under the 
same title and of the same number of plates, was issued between 1878 
and 1884, edited by his sons. These are estimated to contain nearly 1,700 
figures. A second edition of his Hymenomycetes was issued in 1874, 
the preface written on his eighty-first birthday. Twm other works on 
fungi might be mentioned as important among his larger publications, 
viz.: Monographia Hymenomycetum Sueci^, 1851-63, in two vol¬ 
umes 8vo. and Fungi esculenti et venenati Scandinavia, 1862-69, 
with ninety-three folio plates. 
In other fields of botanical science, he has been indefatigable. 
After holding the adjunct professorship of Botany at Lund for many 
years, he was called to the chair of Ih'actical Economy at Upsalain 1834. 
