
Resumé of the President's Address. 
T would be far beyond my grasp, even if time allowed, to 
enumerate, however briefly, the rapid progress that has been 
made in every direction in the study of Mycology during the 
past sixty years. It would not, perhaps, be stating too much to say 
that the entire amount of knowledge dealing with Fungi as living 
organisms, that we possess at the present day, has been acquired within 
that period. Among the pioneers in this branch of the study of 
Mycology the names of Berkeley, the brothers Tulasne, De Bary, 
and Brefeld stand pre-eminent. ‘The two first named soon recog- 
nised that many among the numerous forms of fungi, previously 
considered as entities, were not so in reality, but were in many 
instances only phases in the life-cycle of a single species. “Their 
method of endeavouring to prove the correctness of this new idea 
_ was by contiguity, or the constant sequence of forms having organic 
continuity; a condition of things now proved to be correct in many 
ascigerous fungi. As would be expected, in breaking new ground, 
slips were made; those minute fungi that in many instances are 
almost constantly present as parasites on certain other fungi, proved 
great stumbling-blocks. The next step, which in point of importance 
has no equal, was the introduction of the pure-culture method by 
De Bary. By this method the spores of a given fungus can be 
grown in a sterilised nutrient medium, and its gradual development 
followed step by step. Finally, Brefeld’s brilliant discoveries are the 
outcome of a further development of De Bary’s culture methods. 
The following notes indicate very briefly some of the most im- 
portant points elucidated by the above mentioned authors. 
The Rev. Miles Joseph Berkeley, M.A., F.R.S., produced in 1836 
his first work on Mycology (Eng. Flor., vol. v., pt. i1.), which so 
far as the larger fungi are concerned, is as yet unequalled for accuracy, 
simplicity of style, and originality; and although he continued to 
elucidate the systematic side of Mycology, as amply testified by his 
