Micro-Fungi by Thomas Brittain - Background Information

I bought this small book from the 'remainders' list of a second-hand bookseller and it languished unread on my bookshelves for a number of years. Then, having looked at it, and living in the North West of the UK, I realised that it is of local interest and it is published here for the benefit of those who may find it useful, interesting or merely entertaining.

The names of the fungi in the text have been updated, where possible, and the names of most species described are followed in brackets by their current names where these can be determined. These current names have been suggested by John Taylor (January to December chapters) and Peter Smith (January to March chapters) of the North West Fungus Group. Given the difficulty of working from Brittain's descriptions, whilst most of the current names are suggested with confidence, some are included somewhat tentatively. Some updating has yet to be done as time, and the opportunities to have access to the sources used, permit (particularly Brittain's Appendix which lists micro-fungi on the leaves of plants) so suggestions for those which have no current names attached (or comments on those which have) are welcomed.

Fungal names in brackets ( ) are updated. (*) indicates that the name is still current. (?) indicates an unresolved name. Square brackets [ ] enclose comments.

It should be noted that a change has occurred in the meaning of 'smut' and that the term 'brand' is not used now. Both are today 'rust' fungi. Smuts are now Ustilaginales

The specific epithets for several plants are capitalised in the original text and have been left unchanged although it is realised that this is not now permitted. Many other apparent mistakes in names or in typesetting (either as a result of Brittain's mis-naming of species, or - more probably ? - as a result of the printer's inaccurate typesetting followed by inaccurate proof reading) have also been left unchanged but it is anticipated that these should not cause any particular problems to present-day users.

The authorities used in assessing the changes in nomenclature were, in the main:

• Cooke 1871 Handbook of British Fungi
• Cooke 1898 Microscopic fungi
• Grove 1913 The British rust fungi
• Lister 1925 A Monograph of the Mycetozoa
• Wilson & Henderson 1966 British rust fungi
• Martin & Alexopoulos 1969 The Myxomycetes
• Buczacki & Harris 1981 Collins Guide to the pests, diseases and disorders of garden plants
• Mordue & Ainsworth 1984 Ustilaginales of the British Isles
• Cannon et al 1985 The British Ascomcotina, An Annotated Checklist
• Ing 1990 An introduction to powdery mildews, The Mycologist 4(1) - 5(3)
• Ellis & Ellis 1997 Microfungi on land plants
• A BMS list of names in current use.

If you have any comments, please e-mail Mike Walton on mike.a.walton@0001googlemail.com (Paste the e-mail address into your e-mail program and remove the 0001).