Adaline and Mary Van Horne

Mary Van Horne and her niece Adaline Van Horne are key figures in the mycological history of New Brunswick. They spent many summers on Minister's Island, Saint Andrews, on the grand estate "Covenhoven", established by Sir William Van Horne. In the 1890's Mary, Sir William's sister, began to take an interest in mushrooms, both around her principal residence in Montreal and at Covenhoven. In 1902 she addressed the Natural History Society of Montreal with a paper entitled "Some Mushrooms Found in Canada", later published in the Canadian Record of Science (Can. Rec. Sci. 9:(3-4): 157-175. 1905). Here she described mushrooms as she knew them in eastern Canada, including New Brunswick, and discussed each genus and species in some detail. She discussed the problems encountered in identifying her specimens and how she resolved some of these problems. This paper is not a checklist, but more of a state-of-the-art comment as it applied to a knowledge of Canadian mushroom at the time.

In her address Mary made no reference by name to her niece Adaline. In an early part of the presentation she refers to some "fine water-color drawings of a number of plants" by Sir William along with "some less perfect ones by my niece and myself". However, Adaline, Sir William's daughter, was already in her thirties when Mary's paper was published and was deeply involved in the study of mushrooms. Adaline, or Addie to her family and friends, was an energetic woman who spent many summers collecting mushrooms at Covenhoven. Following Mary's lead, Adaline gave an address to the Natural History Society of Montreal in 1912, published in the Canadian Record of Science (Can. Rec. Sci. 9:(6): 328-338. 1914). That paper is similar to Mary's and is also not a checklist. Adaline continued to be a prominant figure in St. Andrews well into the 1930's and was often seen along with her driver in her Model-T Ford.

In 1915 Adaline and Mary (posthumously) published "A List of Fleshy Fungi Collected at St. Andrews, New Brunswick" (Contrib. Can. Biol. 1911-1914: 4750. 1915). The list covers 108 species collected in the period 1895-1908. Without her aunt's company Adaline seems to have turned to activities other than mushroom collecting and published nothing more on the subject. During the time they were active Adaline and Mary maintained an active correspondence with Charles Peck at the New York State Museum in Albany, who identified some of their specimens. Some of these may remain in Peck's herbarium today. Lorinda Leonardi, Collections manager at NYS, has kindly searched and located two of these: Catathelasma imperiale and Alloclavaria purpurea. We remain hopeful that additionsl collections will turn up: the "Voucher" column in the table below is almost uniformly filled with "Unknown" but we believe there will be more specimens from the Van Hornes that will allow these boxes to be changed.

The Van Horne's list is almost entirely of fleshy basidiomycetes. There are nine entries that do not fit within the limits of our New Brunswick checklist but I have left these in because all are more or less fleshy and because their presence does not greatly exceed the purpose of these pages. This list is the most recent of the three early published lists of New Brunswick fungi and will contain the most names familiar to modern collectors. The period starting with James Flowler in 1879, to 1915, the date of the Van Horne publication, was one in which many of the modern generic names for fungi came into general use. Three genera, Boletus, Clavaria and Hydnum were still in popular use for most boletes, coral fungi and tooth fungi, and would remain so until the 1950's. Only in the last few years have we seen a new exposion of names as the analyses of DNA sequences have revealed a far more complex picture of genetic relationships than we had previously imagined.

VAN HORNE NAMECURRENT NAMEVOUCHERON NB CHECKLIST
Agaricus campesterAgaricus campestrisUnknownY
Agaricus silvicolaAgaricus silvicolaUnknownN
Agaricus semiorbicularisAgrocybe pediadesUnknownY
Amanita muscariaAmanita muscariaUnknownY
Amanita phalloides2Amanita phalloidesUnknownN
Amanita vernaAmanita vernaUnknownY
Amanitopsis vaginatavar. albaAmanita vaginataUnknownY
Amanitopsis vaginatavar. fulvaAmanita fulvaUnknownY
Amanitopsis vaginatavar. lividaAmanita vaginataUnknownY
Armillaria imperialisCatathelasma imperialeNYSY
Armillaria melleaArmillaria melleaUnknownY
Boletus chromapesHarrya chromapesUnknownY
Boletus chrysenteronXerocomellus chrysenteron UnknownN
Boletus clintonianusSuillus grevillei UnknownY
Boletus cyanescensGyroporus cyanescensUnknownY
Boletus edulisBoletus edulisUnknownY
Boletus edulis var. clavipesBoletus edulis var. clavipesUnknownN
Boletus felleusTylopilus felleusUnknownY
Boletus luridusBoletus luridusUnknownN
Boletus piperatusBoletus piperatusUnknownY
Boletus scaberLeccinum scabrumUnknownY
Boletus versipellisLeccinum versipelleUnknownN
Cantharellus aurantiacusHygrophoropsis aurantiacaUnknownY
Cantharellus cibariusCantharellus cibariusUnknownY
Cantharellus floccosusGomphus floccosusUnknownY
Clavaria amethystinaClavulina amethystinaUnknownN
Clavaria aureaRamaria aureaUnknownY
Clavaria botrytisRamaria botrytisUnknownY
Clavaria coralloidesClavulina coralloidesUnknownY
Clavaria cristataClavulina cristataUnknownY
Clavaria fastigiataRamaria fastigiataUnknownN
Clavaria formosaRamaria formosaUnknownY
Clavaria purpureaAlloclavaria purpureaNYSY
Clitocybe laccata var. pallidifoliaLaccaria laccata var. pallidifoliaUnknownY
Clitocybe nebularisClitocybe nebularisUnknownY
Clitocybe odoraClitocybe odoraUnknownY
Clitopilus orcellaClitopilus prunulusUnknownY
Clitopilus prunulusClitopilus prunulusUnknownY
Clitopilus subvilisEntoloma subvileUnknownN
Coprinus atramentariusCoprinopsis atramentariaUnknownY
Cortinarius alboviolaceusCortinarius alboviolaceusUnknownY
Cortinarius armillatusCortinarius armillatusUnknownY
Cortinarius caerulescensCortinarius caerulescensUnknownY
Cortinarius cinnamomeusCortinarius cinnamomeusUnknownY
Cortinarius collinitusCortinarius collinitusUnknownY
Cortinarius everniusCortinarius everniusUnknownY
Cortinarius ochroleucusCortinarius ochroleucusUnknownN
Cortinarius turmalisCortinarius turmalisUnknownY
Cortinarius violaceusCortinarius violaceusUnknownY
Entoloma lividumEntoloma sinuatumUnknownY
Flammula alnicola var. marginalisPholiota alnicolaUnknownY
Gyromitra esculenta1Gyromitra esculentaUnknownN
Helvella lacunosaHelvella lacunosaUnknownN
Hydnum imbricatumSarcodon imbricatusUnknownN
Hydnum rufescensHydnum repandum var. rufescensUnknownN
Hydnum repandumHydnum repandumUnknownY
Hygrophorus chrysodonHygrophorus chrysodonUnknownY
Hygrophorus pudorinusHygrophorus pudorinusUnknownN
Hygrophorus puniceusHygrophorus puniceusUnknownN
Hygrophorus virgineusCuphophyllus virgineusUnknownY
Hypholoma incertumPsathyrella incertaUnknownN
Hypholoma perplexumHypholoma perplexumUnknownN
Hypholoma sublateritiumHypholoma sublateritiumUnknownY
Hypomyces lactifluorumHypomyces lactifluorumUnknownN
Inocybe fastigiataInocybe rimosaUnknownY
Lactarius affinisLactarius affinisUnknownY
Lactarius aquifluusLactarius aquifluusUnknownY
Lactarius deliciosusLactarius deliciosusUnknownY
Lactarius exsuccusRussula delicaUnknownN
Lactarius glyciosmusLactarius glyciosmusUnknownY
Lactarius lignyotusLactarius lignyotusUnknownY
Lactarius piperatusLactarius piperatusUnknownN
Lactarius rufusLactarius rufusUnknownY
Lactarius theiogalusLactarius theiogalusUnknownY
Lactarius torminosusLactarius torminosusUnknownY
Lentinus lepideusLentinus lepideusUnknownY
Leotia lubricaLeotia lubricaUnknownN
Lepiota naucinoidesLepiota naucinoidesUnknownN
Lycoperdon gemmatumLycoerdon perlatumUnknownY
Lycoperdon pyriformeLycoperdon pyriformeUnknownY
Marasmius cohaerensMarasmius cohaerensUnknownN
Marasmius oreadesMarasmius oreadesUnknownY
Marasmius urensGymnopus peronatusUnknownN
Mitrula vitellinaNeolecta vitellinaUnknownN
Panaeolus retirugusPanaeolus papilionaceusUnknownN
Paxillus involutusPaxillus involutusUnknownY
Peziza aurantiaAleuria aurantiaUnknownN
Phallus impudicusPhallus impudicusUnknownN
Pholiota caperataCortinarius caperatusUnknownY
Pholiota luteaGymnopilus luteusUnknownN
Pholiota squarrosaPholiota squarrosaUnknownY
Pleurotus ostreatusPleurotus ostreatusUnknownY
Polyporus betulinusFomitopsis betulinaUnknownN
Polyporus perennisColtricia perennisUnknownN
Russula albellaRussula albellaUnknownN
Russsula alutaceaRusssula alutaceaUnknownN
Russula aureaRussula aureaUnknownN
Russula brevipesRussula brevipesUnknownN
Russsula emeticaRusssula emeticaUnknownN
Russula heterophyllaRussula heterophyllaUnknownY
Russsula virescensRusssula virescensUnknownN
Scleroderma vulgareScleroderma citrinumUnknownY
Spathularia velutipesSpathulariopsis velutipesUnknownN
Tricholoma equestreTricholoma equestreUnknownY
Tricholoma personatumLepista personataUnknownN
Tricholoma rutilansTricholomopsis rutilansUnknownY
Tricholoma subacutumTricholoma subacutumUnknownN
Tricholoma vaccinumTricholoma vaccinumUnknownY

1 A footnote in Van Horne & Van Horne's 1915 checklist states that Prof. J. H. Faull had suggested this specimen, collected in October of 1904, could possibly be Gyromitra infula. Gyromitra esculenta typically fruits in the spring, while Gyromitra infula occurs in autumn.

2 See the discussion of Amanita phalloides in the footnote to Hay's list