History of the Fungi of the Kingdom of Naples

skilled in the study of this subject; especially since they can by no means be preserved, nor found at a certain time and in accustomed places at the nod of a curious investigator, due to the vicissitudes of the year; and thus they cannot even be subjected to constant observations and mutual comparisons. Hence it happened that few have written accurately about them; and they used no small effort, arduous care, daily constancy, and supreme virtue, all of which this investigation of fungal matters requires, in order to be brought to a conclusion.

Now, therefore, I will attempt to approach this province, surrounded by so many obstacles, according to my strength: and this not until after the complete and most learned exercises of other men, especially after those which the illustrious Persoon and Fries recently exhibited, whose titles, Synopsis methodica fungorum Methodical Synopsis of Fungi (1), Mycologia europaea European Mycology (2), Systema mycologicum Mycological System (3), were presented furnished with such copious and clear findings that nothing more seemed to be desired (4). Yet, since the storehouse of Nature is fertile, and each region nourishes certain fungi that are peculiar and in some way proper to itself, especially since this region of ours, which for a study of this kind, unless my opinion deceives me, is still an infant...

(1) Göttingen, 1801.
(2) Erlangen, 1822-1828.
(3) Greifswald, 1821-1830.
(4) Although, as will be said below, we have followed the praised writers, we have also often consulted other ancients and moderns, especially those who, in this fungal matter, have attained greater fame and deserve greater trust, such as Bulliard, De Candolle, Nees, Sowerby, Bolton, Paulet, Trattinnick, Batsch, Schaeffer, Link, Swarte, Ehrenberg, Dittmar, Roques, Vaillant, Battarra, Micheli, Albertini, Viviani, Vittadini, Venturi, and not to mention other promoters.