or write in
America, we are dealing with the same thing intended by the man who
speaks or writes in England, or elsewhere.

The space occupied in synonymy, is therefore by no means wasted. By and
by, if we succeed in establishing a nomenclature on which competent
judges can agree, a thing not at all improbable, almost now attained,
the lists may gradually disappear as having historical value only.

b. Taxonomy, in any field, is of necessity concerned with history. For
his own sake, no student can ignore the thought and work of his
predecessors. No man ever sees nature in completeness, nor even the
small part of the world to which he devotes attention. He needs every
possible assistance, especially the observations of intelligent men. The
present author rejoices to acknowledge the assistance found in volumes
written in Europe during the last two hundred years. Such men as
Persoon, Bulliard, Schumacher, Schrader, Fries, are deservedly famous;
they laid the foundations of mycologic taxonomy. No student can afford
to miss _Elias Fries_; his genius, spirit and scholarship entitle him to
the recognition and sympathy of every lover of the intellectual life.

c. The considerations just mentioned may, indeed do, sometimes act as a
handicap to the American student, for the simple reason that he comes
later to the field of time. He must naturally defer to the decision of
men in Europe who are supposedly familiar with original types. An
American specimen is presumably the same as one occurring elsewhere in
similar latitude and environment. It becomes evident after while that
only in certain instances is this undoubtedly the fact. The flora of the
American continent has been sufficiently disjoined in space and time
from Europe to permit extensive differentiation even in these minor
forms, so that we have indeed in the groups we study many species, some
genera, definitely autochthonous, more it is believed than are now
suspected. An attempt to bring a specimen under the terms of a species
described in Western Europe is not seldom an error. It becomes evident,
as we go forward, that in eastern North America there are forms not only
not described in European literature, but really not, part of European
flora, not even adventitiously.

d. Many of the more minute species with which this volume has to do are
very elusive, very difficult; for one reason,--perhaps in itself
sufficient,--because of their minuteness, and consequent appare