Toadstools and Mushrooms

Cleland’s ‘Toadstools and Mushrooms’ is not primarily addressed to the amateur naturalist but is the first scientific work of its kind in Australia.  It is this that makes it important. 

The classification that Cleland adopted, the names he used, and the specimens that he collected and preserved, will always have to be considered in any subsequent work on the larger fungi of Australia.  Taxonomy tries to correct the errors and build on the triumphs of previous workers and in this sense a taxonomic book may be outdated and yet timeless. 

This is perhaps the main reason for reprinting Cleland’s book of forty years after it was written, a time in which there have been profound changes in the taxonomy of mushrooms and toadstools.  This period has seen changes in the concepts of genera and species, in classification and in nomenclature.  It has seen far greater emphasis put on microscopic characters and chemical tests for the purpose of classification, and less on variable macroscopic features such as the colour and size of specimens…”- Foreword by P. H. B. Talbot

SA Government, Photolitho Reprint by A. B. James, 1976, black and white photographs.