"In any region whatever," writes Fries, "it is necessary, in the first instance, to draw a distinction between its open naked plains and its wooded tracts. In the level open country there is a more rapid evaporation of the moisture by the conjoined action of the sun and wind; whence it happens that such a region is more bare of fungi than one that is mountainous or covered by woods. On the other hand, plains possess several species peculiar to themselves; as, for example, _Agaricus pediades_, certain _Tricholomata_, and, above all, the family _Coprini_, of which they may be regarded as the special habitat. The species of this family augment in number, in any given country, in proportion to the extent and degree of its cultivation; for instance, they grow more luxuriantly in the province of Scania, in Sweden--a district farther distinguished above all others by its cultivation and fertility. In well-wooded countries moisture is retained a much longer time, and, as a result, the production of fungi is incomparably greater; and it is here desirable to make a distinction between the fungi growing in forests of resinous-wooded trees (_Coniferæ_) and those which inhabit woods of other trees, for these two descriptions of forests may be rightly regarded, as to their fungaceous growths, as two different regions. Beneath the shade of _Coniferæ_, fungi are earlier in their appearance; so much so, that it often happens they have attained their full development when their congeners in forests of non-resinous trees have scarcely commenced their growth. In woods of the latter sort, the fallen leaves, collected in thick layers, act as an obstacle to the soaking of moisture into the earth, and thereby retard the vegetation of fungi; on the other hand, such woods retain moisture longer. These conditions afford to several large and remarkable species the necessary time for development. The beech is characteristic of our own region, but, further north this tree gives place to the birch. Coniferous woods are, moreover, divisible into two regions--that of the pines and that of the firs. The latter is richer in species than the former, because, as is well known, fir-trees flourish in more fertile and moister soils. Whether, with respect to the South of Europe, other subdivisions into regions are required, we know not; still less are we able to decide on the like question in reference to the countries beyond Europe."[C] In very cold countries the higher fungi are rare, whilst in tropical countries they are most common at elevations which secure a temperate climate. In Java, Junghuhn found them most prolific at an elevation of 3,000 to 5,000 feet; and in India, Dr. Hooker remarked that they were most abundant at an elevation of 7,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea level. For the higher fungi we must be indebted to the summary made by Fries, to which we have little to add.