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". Some of these are in the collection of the McCord Museum in Montreal. 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 NAME	CURRENT NAME	VOUCHER	ON NB CHECKLIST
Agaricus campester	Agaricus campestris	Unknown	Y
Agaricus silvicola	Agaricus silvicola	Unknown	N
Agaricus semiorbicularis	Agrocybe pediades	Unknown	Y
Amanita muscaria	Amanita muscaria	Unknown	Y
Amanita phalloides2	Amanita phalloides	Unknown	N
Amanita verna	Amanita verna	Unknown	Y
Amanitopsis vaginata var. alba	Amanita vaginata	Unknown	Y
Amanitopsis vaginata var. fulva	Amanita fulva	Unknown	Y
Amanitopsis vaginata var. livida	Amanita vaginata	Unknown	Y
Armillaria imperialis	Catathelasma imperiale	NYS	Y
Armillaria mellea	Armillaria mellea	Unknown	Y
Boletus chromapes	Harrya chromapes	Unknown	Y
Boletus chrysenteron	Xerocomellus chrysenteron	Unknown	N
Boletus clintonianus	Suillus grevillei	Unknown	Y
Boletus cyanescens	Gyroporus cyanescens	Unknown	Y
Boletus edulis	Boletus edulis	Unknown	Y
Boletus edulis var. clavipes	Boletus edulis var. clavipes	Unknown	N
Boletus felleus	Tylopilus felleus	Unknown	Y
Boletus luridus	Boletus luridus	Unknown	N
Boletus piperatus	Boletus piperatus	Unknown	Y
Boletus scaber	Leccinum scabrum	Unknown	Y
Boletus versipellis	Leccinum versipelle	Unknown	N
Cantharellus aurantiacus	Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca	Unknown	Y
Cantharellus cibarius	Cantharellus cibarius	Unknown	Y
Cantharellus floccosus	Gomphus floccosus	Unknown	Y
Clavaria amethystina	Clavulina amethystina	Unknown	N
Clavaria aurea	Ramaria aurea	Unknown	Y
Clavaria botrytis	Ramaria botrytis	Unknown	Y
Clavaria coralloides	Clavulina coralloides	Unknown	Y
Clavaria cristata	Clavulina cristata	Unknown	Y
Clavaria fastigiata	Ramaria fastigiata	Unknown	N
Clavaria formosa	Ramaria formosa	Unknown	Y
Clavaria purpurea	Alloclavaria purpurea	NYS	Y
Clitocybe laccata var. pallidifolia	Laccaria laccata var. pallidifolia	Unknown	Y
Clitocybe nebularis	Clitocybe nebularis	Unknown	Y
Clitocybe odora	Clitocybe odora	Unknown	Y
Clitopilus orcella	Clitopilus prunulus	Unknown	Y
Clitopilus prunulus	Clitopilus prunulus	Unknown	Y
Clitopilus subvilis	Entoloma subvile	Unknown	N
Coprinus atramentarius	Coprinopsis atramentaria	Unknown	Y
Cortinarius alboviolaceus	Cortinarius alboviolaceus	Unknown	Y
Cortinarius armillatus	Cortinarius armillatus	Unknown	Y
Cortinarius caerulescens	Cortinarius caerulescens	Unknown	Y
Cortinarius cinnamomeus	Cortinarius cinnamomeus	Unknown	Y
Cortinarius collinitus	Cortinarius collinitus	Unknown	Y
Cortinarius evernius	Cortinarius evernius	Unknown	Y
Cortinarius ochroleucus	Cortinarius ochroleucus	Unknown	N
Cortinarius turmalis	Cortinarius turmalis	Unknown	Y
Cortinarius violaceus	Cortinarius violaceus	Unknown	Y
Entoloma lividum	Entoloma sinuatum	Unknown	Y
Flammula alnicola var. marginalis	Pholiota alnicola	Unknown	Y
Gyromitra esculenta1	Gyromitra esculenta	Unknown	N
Helvella lacunosa	Helvella lacunosa	Unknown	N
Hydnum imbricatum	Sarcodon imbricatus	Unknown	N
Hydnum rufescens	Hydnum repandum var. rufescens	Unknown	N
Hydnum repandum	Hydnum repandum	Unknown	Y
Hygrophorus chrysodon	Hygrophorus chrysodon	Unknown	Y
Hygrophorus pudorinus	Hygrophorus pudorinus	Unknown	N
Hygrophorus puniceus	Hygrophorus puniceus	Unknown	N
Hygrophorus virgineus	Cuphophyllus virgineus	Unknown	Y
Hypholoma incertum	Psathyrella incerta	Unknown	N
Hypholoma perplexum	Hypholoma perplexum	Unknown	N
Hypholoma sublateritium	Hypholoma sublateritium	Unknown	Y
Hypomyces lactifluorum	Hypomyces lactifluorum	Unknown	N
Inocybe fastigiata	Inocybe rimosa	Unknown	Y
Lactarius affinis	Lactarius affinis	Unknown	Y
Lactarius aquifluus	Lactarius aquifluus	Unknown	Y
Lactarius deliciosus	Lactarius deliciosus	Unknown	Y
Lactarius exsuccus	Russula delica	Unknown	N
Lactarius glyciosmus	Lactarius glyciosmus	Unknown	Y
Lactarius lignyotus	Lactarius lignyotus	Unknown	Y
Lactarius piperatus	Lactarius piperatus	Unknown	N
Lactarius rufus	Lactarius rufus	Unknown	Y
Lactarius theiogalus	Lactarius theiogalus	Unknown	Y
Lactarius torminosus	Lactarius torminosus	Unknown	Y
Lentinus lepideus	Lentinus lepideus	Unknown	Y
Leotia lubrica	Leotia lubrica	Unknown	N
Lepiota naucinoides	Lepiota naucinoides	Unknown	N
Lycoperdon gemmatum	Lycoerdon perlatum	Unknown	Y
Lycoperdon pyriforme	Lycoperdon pyriforme	Unknown	Y
Marasmius cohaerens	Marasmius cohaerens	Unknown	N
Marasmius oreades	Marasmius oreades	Unknown	Y
Marasmius urens	Gymnopus peronatus	Unknown	N
Mitrula vitellina	Neolecta vitellina	Unknown	N
Panaeolus retirugus	Panaeolus papilionaceus	Unknown	N
Paxillus involutus	Paxillus involutus	Unknown	Y
Peziza aurantia	Aleuria aurantia	Unknown	N
Phallus impudicus	Phallus impudicus	Unknown	N
Pholiota caperata	Cortinarius caperatus	Unknown	Y
Pholiota lutea	Gymnopilus luteus	Unknown	N
Pholiota squarrosa	Pholiota squarrosa	Unknown	Y
Pleurotus ostreatus	Pleurotus ostreatus	Unknown	Y
Polyporus betulinus	Fomitopsis betulina	Unknown	N
Polyporus perennis	Coltricia perennis	Unknown	N
Russula albella	Russula albella	Unknown	N
Russsula alutacea	Russsula alutacea	Unknown	N
Russula aurea	Russula aurea	Unknown	N
Russula brevipes	Russula brevipes	Unknown	N
Russsula emetica	Russsula emetica	Unknown	N
Russula heterophylla	Russula heterophylla	Unknown	Y
Russsula virescens	Russsula virescens	Unknown	N
Scleroderma vulgare	Scleroderma citrinum	Unknown	Y
Spathularia velutipes	Spathulariopsis velutipes	Unknown	N
Tricholoma equestre	Tricholoma equestre	Unknown	Y
Tricholoma personatum	Lepista personata	Unknown	N
Tricholoma rutilans	Tricholomopsis rutilans	Unknown	Y
Tricholoma subacutum	Tricholoma subacutum	Unknown	N
Tricholoma vaccinum	Tricholoma vaccinum	Unknown	Y

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