The intent of this publication is to bring together reviews and discussions from several disciplines, all treating the basidium and basidiocarp of the Basidiomy cotina (= basidiomycetes), a subdivision of the true or higher fungi. Because the workers who study the species of this group employ such a variety of techniques and publish in such diverse journals, we believe that bringing together these efforts in one publication will facilitate a synopsis of recent studies of several divergent disciplines. Correlation of such information may not only aid in the reevaluation of broad taxonomic and biological concepts but also provide a key to the specialists in the rethinking of the data available within the confines of the more restricted disciplines. We have attempted to cover the major areas of studies of species of the Basidiomycotina within the past decade or so with the exception of genetics and compatibility, which have recently been reviewed in several other works. A problem we have not been able to solve satisfactorily is the one of vocabulary. Each discipline tends to develop its own language as it becomes increasingly specialized, with time becoming unintelligible to the majority. We have tried to alleviate this problem of terms but can not claim to have been completely successful. We are indebted to a great many people, but especially to the contributors. They have been most patient and cooperative throughout."

Exegi monumentum ael'e perennius. The monument I have built will last longer than bronze. Horace My previous book, "Chitin," (1977) was listed by the publisher, as a "key research book," among the most requested books by libraries. It received favorable comments from. each of the journals which reviewed it, Science, 198, 28 Oct. 1977, Physiological Entomology, 2(4), Dec. 1977, The Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology Journal, April 1978, The Quarterly Review of Biology, 53:361, 1978, Oceanographic Abstracts, 15:182, 1979, Annales de Zoologie-Ecologie Animale, 11:127, 1979, and Enzyme & Microbial Technology, 2, 1980. The variety of these journals testifies to the interdisci plinary character of chitin studies. "Chitin" has really been a landmark, to use the definition given by Science, because it stimulated interest in the less known polysaccharides and in modified chitins, besides chitin itself, to the point that three International Conferences on Chitin / Chitosan were convened (Boston, U. S. A. 1977, Sapporo, Japan 1982 and Senigallia, Italy 1985). In convening the 3rd International Conference on Chitin / Chitosan (1-4 April 1985), one of the main objectives was the preparation of the present book. While the proceedings of the previous two Conferences were very valuable, they did not appear in any book catalogs and this severely Ii mi ted their distribution."