won. A review of the work done can be most conveniently discussed under three separate headings—Systematic Mycology, Morphology and Literature, and Plant Pathology, respectively.
Systematic Mycology.
Under the title British Fungi, four fascicles of dried and well-prepared specimens, numbering in all 350 species, were issued between 1836 and 1843. In those days exsiccatæ were not issued from a commercial standpoint, as is too frequently the case at the present day, but represented the outcome of careful investigation on the part of the author, hence Berkeley's exsiccatæ are at a premium at the present day.
In 1828 Berkeley first corresponded with Sir W. J. Hooker on matters dealing with cryptogams, and in one of his early letters stated that he had devoted much time to the study of fungi, more especially to the extensive genus Agaricus which at that period included all the gill-bearing fungi. At this time, Sir William was engaged in preparing the volumes dealing with cryptogams, as supplementary to The English Flora of Sir James Edward Smith, and approached Berkeley on the subject of undertaking the section dealing with Agarics, in the volume devoted to the fungi. Berkeley agreed to this arrangement, and was finally induced to describe the whole of the fungi. A footnote at the commencement of the volume by Sir W. J. Hooker is as follows:
"When the printing of the species of this, the 2nd Part of the Class Cryptogamia, was commenced, I thought myself highly fortunate to have obtained the assistance of my valued friend, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, in preparing the first Tribe, Pileati. I have now to express my cordial acknowledgements (in which I am satisfied I shall be joined by every Botanist in the country) to that gentleman for having kindly undertaken to prepare the whole of this vast family for the press: and it is certain that the task could not have fallen into better hands."
The volume contains detailed descriptions of all British fungi known at the time, amounting to 1360 species, included in 155 genera, the great majority of which had been studied by
