Fungi: Their Nature and Uses

by M. C. Cooke

In Spain and Portugal scarce anything has been done; the small collection made by Welwitsch can in no way be supposed to represent the Peninsula.

The fungi of Italy[L] include some species peculiar to the Peninsula. The Tuberacei are well represented, and although the Hymenomycetes do not equal in number those of Britain or Scandinavia, a good proportion is maintained.

Bavaria and Austria (including Hungary, and the Tyrol) are being more thoroughly investigated than hitherto, but the works of Schæffer, Tratinnick, Corda, and Krombholz have made us acquainted with the general features of their mycology,[M] to which more recent lists and catalogues have contributed.[N] The publication of dried specimens has of late years greatly facilitated acquaintance with the fungi of different countries in Europe, and those issued by Baron Thümen from Austria do not differ materially from those of Northern Germany, although Dr. Rehm has made us acquainted with some new and interesting forms from Bavaria.[O]

Russia is to a large extent unknown, except in its northern borders.[P] Karsten has investigated the fungi of Finland,[Q] and added considerably to the number of Discomycetes, for which the climate seems to be favourable; but, as a whole, it may be concluded that Western and Northern Europe are much better explored than the Eastern and South-Eastern, to which we might add the South, if Italy be excepted.

We have only to add, for Europe, that different portions of the German empire have been well worked, from the period of Wallroth to the present.[R] Recently, the valley of the Rhine has been exhaustively examined by Fuckel;[S] but both Germany and France suffered checks during the late war which made their mark on the records of science not so speedily to be effaced. Denmark, with its splendid Flora Danica still in progress, more than a century after its commencement,[T] has a mycologic flora very like to that of Scandinavia, which is as well known.

If we pass from Europe to North America, we find there a mycologic flora greatly resembling that of Europe, and although Canada and the extreme North is little known, some parts of the United States have been investigated. Schweinitz[U] first made known to any extent the riches of this country, especially Carolina, and in this state the late Dr. Curtis and H. W. Ravenel continued their labours. With the exception of Lea’s collections in Cincinnati, Wright’s in Texas, and some contributions from Ohio, Alabama, Massachusetts, and New York, a great portion of this vast country is mycologically unknown. It is remarkably rich in fleshy fungi, not only in Agaricini, but also in Discomycetes, containing a large number of European forms, mostly European genera, with many species at present peculiar to itself. Tropical forms extend upwards into the Southern States.

The islands of the West Indies have been more or less examined, but none so thoroughly as Cuba, at first by Ramon de la Sagra, and afterwards by Wright.[V] The three principal genera of Hymenomycetes represented are Agaricus, Marasmius, and Polyporus, represented severally by 82, 51, and 120 species, amounting to more than half the entire number. Of the 490 species, about 57 per cent. are peculiar to the island; 13 per cent. are widely dispersed species; 12 per cent. are common to the island and Central America, together with the warmer parts of South America and Mexico; 3 per cent. are common to it with the United States, especially the Southern; while 13 per cent. are European species, including, however, 13 which may be considered as cosmopolitan. Some common tropical species do not occur, and, on the whole, the general character seems sub-tropical rather than tropical. Many of the species are decidedly those of temperate regions, or at least nearly allied. Perhaps the most interesting species are those which occur in the genera Craterellus and Laschia, the latter genus, especially, yielding several new forms. The fact that the climate is, on the whole, more temperate than that of some other islands in the same latitudes, would lead us to expect the presence of a comparatively large number of European species, or those which are found in the more northern United States, or British North America, and may account for the fact that so small a proportion of species should be identical with those from neighbouring islands.

In Central America only a few small collections have been made, which indicate a sub-tropical region.

From the northern parts of South America, M. Leprieur collected in French Guiana.[W] Southwards of this, Spruce collected in the countries bordering on the River Amazon, and Gardner in Brazil,[X] Gaudichaud in Chili and Peru,[Y] Gay in Chili,[Z] Blanchet in Bahia,[a] Weddell in Brazil,[] and Auguste de Saint Hiliare[c] in the same country. Small collections have also been made in the extreme south. All these collections contain coriaceous species of Polyporus, Favolus, and allied genera, with Auricularini, together with such Ascomycetes as Xylaria, and such forms of Peziza as P. tricholoma, P. Hindsii, and P. macrotis. As yet we cannot form an estimate of the extent or variety of the South American flora, which has furnished the interesting genus Cyttaria, and may yet supply forms unrecognized elsewhere.

The island of Juan Fernandez furnished to M. Bertero a good representative collection,[d] which is remarkable as containing more than one-half its number of European species, and the rest possessing rather the character of those of a temperate than a sub-tropical region.