The study of fungi is called "Mycology". The term Mycology (mykes = mushroom + logos = discourse) is a Greek world considered to be derived from a Great Civilization - The Myceanean.
However, etymologically, mycology represents the study of mushrooms as it started with the study of mushrooms by the naturalists in the dim past before microscopes or even simple lenses had been thought of.
A systematic study of fungi started with the discovery of microscopes and the first authentic literature published in this field was "Nova Plantarum Genera" By P.A. Micheli (1729), the Italian botanist who is generally considered as the "Founder of the science of mycology".
The "higher fungi" (especially many of the Basidiomycetes) consist of conspicuous, well developed, larger fruiting bodies, but they are comparatively of little interest to microbiologists.
For this reason, they generally do not fall into the category of microorganisms and like others we have, too, not included them in this book of microbiology.
We have decided to describe in brief the microfungi (molds and yeasts) only, the fungi of microbiological interest.
