NOMAD FUNGI. 
* 
27 
miniature, an index in which the names of one’s finds may he readily 
discovered, but not representing in any way the natural relations of 
the objects. In the first place the system was broken—even in 
England—by the admission of a large number of the Caeomacei among 
the Pucciniacei, as when the “ rust”of corn, Trichohash nibino-vera, was 
set down under Puccinia fjraiiiini.'i, the “corn mildew,” of which it was 
considered merely an early phase ; or again, when the round simple 
spores of the early stage of Phragmidium are classed with the long 
three to six-septate spores of the later form. But the condition of the 
Caeomacei was worse. It included the bunt and smut of corn 
which have simple spores; the Buttercup smut and other allied 
species (Urocystis) which have compound spores ; the Coleosporia and 
Melampsorae, each of which produces spores of two distinct kinds, 
just as Puccinia does, and demands, by every rule of classification, to 
be ranked with it; and, finally, it contains a genus (Cystopus) which 
has absolutely nothing in common with the others, and is, in point of 
fact, closely allied to a genus, Peronospora, the Potato-fungus, which 
is itself classed with dissimilar species in another group, the Hypho- 
mycetes. The (Ecidiacei was the only order which approached the 
requirements of a rational system. 
It is true that a great deal of what is now known was unknown 
fifty years ago, while some facts have only recently been discovered; 
but it nevertheless remains that British mycologists must plead guilty 
to clinging obstinately to an obsolete system, which has long been 
abandoned on the Continent. The true interpretation of the facts 
has been published for many years, but we in England have heard 
nothing (at least among mycologists) but murmurs about “ mad 
fancies for change,” “ startling vagaries in vogue in certain quarters,” 
“ pandering to the desire of novelty,” etc., with an intimation that the 
writer retained a preference for the steady old British jog-trot, though 
it land him far in the rear of the rest of the world. To suppose that, 
though a few hundreds of Continental physiologists all unite in testify¬ 
ing to their belief, founded upon experiments,* in the necessit,y of a 
total change in the classification of the leaf-fungi, yet we in our island 
sliall continue to regard the facts as unproved, is conceited, not to say 
absurd. What do we want ? Can we not trust biologists, other than 
Englishmen, to make their experiments carefully and record their 
conclusions truthfully ? The progress, and especially the manner of 
the progress, of other branches of science certainly does not warrant 
such a conviction. Are we to regard all their testimony as doubtful, and 
possibly until some British expei’imenter deigns to bestir him¬ 
self. 
Happily, the question need no longer be asked. The British 
experimenter has bestirred himself, and to one of our leading mycolo¬ 
gists, Mr. C. B. Plowright, of King’s Lynn, belongs the high honour of 
being the first to remove this stain from British science. His words 
* See “ Comptes Bendas,” 1880, and “ Potanische Zeitunn,” 
