gment in number, in
any given country, in proportion to the extent and degree of its
cultivation; for instance, they grow more luxuriantly in the
province of Scania, in Sweden--a district farther distinguished
above all others by its cultivation and fertility. In well-wooded
countries moisture is retained a much longer time, and, as a
result, the production of fungi is incomparably greater; and it is
here desirable to make a distinction between the fungi growing in
forests of resinous-wooded trees (_Coniferae_) and those which
inhabit woods of other trees, for these two descriptions of forests
may be rightly regarded, as to their fungaceous growths, as two
different regions. Beneath the shade of _Coniferae_, fungi are
earlier in their appearance; so much so, that it often happens they
have attained their full development when their congeners in forests
of non-resinous trees have scarcely commenced their growth. In woods
of the latter sort, the fallen leaves, collected in thick layers, act
as an obstacle to the soaking of moisture into the earth, and
thereby retard the vegetation of fungi; on the other hand, such
woods retain moisture longer. These conditions afford to several
large and remarkable species the necessary time for development. The
beech is characteristic of our own region, but, further north this
tree gives place to the birch. Coniferous woods are, moreover,
divisible into two regions--that of the pines and that of the firs.
The latter is richer in species than the former, because, as is well
known, fir-trees flourish in more fertile and moister soils.
Whether, with respect to the South of Europe, other subdivisions into
regions are required, we know not; still less are we able to
decide on the like question in reference to the countries beyond
Europe."[C]

In very cold countries the higher fungi are rare, whilst in tropical
countries they are most common at elevations which secure a temperate
climate. In Java, Junghuhn found them most prolific at an elevation of
3,000 to 5,000 feet; and in India, Dr. Hooker remarked that they were
most abundant at an elevation of 7,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea
level.

For the higher fungi we must be indebted to the summary made by Fries,
to which we have little to add.

The genus _Agaricus_ occupies the first place, and surpasses, in the
number of species, all the other generic groups known. It appears,
from our present knowledge, that the _Agarici_ have their geog