Distribution Patterns in European Basidio-mycetes with Reference to Some British Species

NINETEENTH CENTURY mycologists, impressed by the wide distribution of agarics and polypores, were inclined to regard them as truly cosmopolitan. Subsequent experience has modified this view by indicating that, at least as regards Basidiomycetes, the flora of tropical regions does not usually consist of the same species as that of the north temperate zone. It is also often doubtful whether a specific epithet has been applied to the same species in North America as in Europe. Even within a rather small area such as Europe, gradually accumulating distributional data have shown that not all the higher fungi occur in all parts of the Continent. Thus, in the comparatively rich British Basidiomycete flora, it is possible to distinguish components characteristic of different Continental regions. For the present it may be sufficient to recognize a northern European, southern European and Oceanic type of distribution ; but when the European fungus flora has been adequately studied from this point of view, it will probably be possible not only to define these with greater precision but also to recognize other, smaller, mycological provinces.