Critical Review of the Mycological System

X

[It is enough, hardly any species of Volume I could subsequently be rightly reduced], he relegated the rest for future examination among the synonyms and nearest varieties. He now willingly recognizes various species among these, after it has been possible to explore their true limits and differences, which were formerly not indicated; had he preferred to persist in what was once stated as if it were established, he would have been worthy of blame. We have all seen entire botanists forced to acknowledge species once joined by themselves; when they had not properly known either one. After the edition of the Systema Mycologicum, due to the excess in other parts of botanical science, I have perceived more and more that the theoretical or rather hypothetical construction of species—which commonly attracts novices with its more elevated appearance—is vain and harmful to practical study in many ways; to botanists of keener intellect, who never neglect this typical connection for that reason, it is now clear that this matter, as explained by Link original: "Linkio", does not belong to this head, i.e., descriptive botany, lest this empirical part of the discipline become speculative and arbitrary. Hence also, for example, the varieties of Agaricus Cortinarius gentilis original: "Agarici Cortinarii gentilis" of the S. M. (although their typical kinship is manifest) have all now been proposed separately by me, since novices can never properly grasp species so liberally heaped together. Thus, in the present work, species are sometimes limited more strictly than I would prefer, specifically when it was necessary to avoid a graver confusion of heterogeneous elements. But I hardly need to warn that there is a limit in distinguishing, which Secretan and many of the recent authors seem to me to have exceeded, at least in the present case; rather, their diligent and accurate studies are to be valued far more than those who, since they can contribute nothing new to the matter itself, seek only the appearance of judicious autonomy in innovations that look only at the way of proposing (cf. the Fungi in Sprengel’s Systema Vegetabilium).