THE first edition of this Work having for some time been out of print, and the demands of the public encouraging the publisher to proceed with a new edition, I have added, in a second Appendix, descriptions of all the species discovered in Britain since 1865, so far as they relate to the Orders included in this volume. The success which has attended the sale of this Work, and the number of fresh observers it has brought into the field, has greatly tended to the necessity for a second Appendix. A larger number of observers, over a still more extended area, will, it is hoped, add further to our list; by increasing the number of known species. Hitherto one great cause of the paucity of students of Fungi in this country, especially of the Microscopic forms, has been the want of text-books on the subject, containing descriptions of the species, with figures illustrative of the genera. Although this little volume only partly supplies that want, by including the species found on living plants alone, it has already proved of service; this and its companion volume, “Introduction to British Fungi,” being (with but one exception) the only books on Fungi which have passed into a second edition in this country; a fact which appears to prove that they have succeeded in furnishing a desideratum, and in giving an impetus to the study. It is hoped that similar results will follow the publication of this new edition.

M. C. COOKE.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE
I.Cluster-Cups[1]
II.Spermogones[22]
III.Di-morphism[33]
IV.Mildew and Brand[45]
V.Complex Brands[67]
VI.Smuts[77]
VII.Complex Smuts[90]
VIII.Rusts[95]
IX.Rusts (continued)[110]
X.White Rusts[124]
XI.Moulds[138]
XII.White Mildews or Blights[162]
XIII.Suggestions[179]
Appendix, Classification, and Descriptions of Fungi contained in this volume[189]
Appendix II.[223]
Index[239]

MICROSCOPIC FUNGI.

CHAPTER I.
CLUSTER-CUPS.

IN these latter days, when everyone who possesses a love for the marvellous, or desires a knowledge of some of the minute mysteries of nature, has, or ought to have, a microscope, a want is occasionally felt which we have essayed to supply. This want consists in a guide to some systematic botanical study, in which the microscope can be rendered available, and in which there is ample field for discovery, and ample opportunity for the elucidation of facts only partly revealed. Fungi, especially the more minute epiphyllous species, present just such an opportunity as many an ardent student would gladly take advantage of; one great obstacle to the pursuit being hitherto found in the absence of any hand-book to this section of the British Flora, embracing the emendations, improvements, and additions of the past twenty-seven years (the period at which the fifth volume of the “English Flora” made its appearance). It would be incompatible with our object, and beyond our limits, to introduce an entire mycological flora to our readers in these pages; but we hope to communicate such information as will serve to prepare the way still more for such an additional Flora, should it ever be produced, and render the demand still wider and more general for such an extension of our botanical literature. It is true that one work has of late years issued from the press on this subject, but notwithstanding its utility to scientific men as a record of species, it is practically useless to those we address, from the absence of all specific descriptions of microscopic fungi.