312 C. H. Kauffman 



13 of the Journal of Mycology, 1906-1907, I doubt whether 

 mycologists have studied Mr. Morgan's arrangement of species 

 as carefully as it deserves. We have here an effort to lay a firm 

 foundation for the American species within this genus, and Mr. 

 Morgan, by careful choosing of terms, tried to bring all related 

 species together under headings which would indicate their 

 morphological development. Finally, a comprehensive account 

 of all the known North American species appeared in 1914, in 

 the North American Flora, Vol. 10, Part I. Here Dr. Murrill 

 recognises ninety-seven species, of which nine are segregated and 

 placed in the genus Limacella, proposed in 1909 by F. S. Earle. 



Since Peck's first list, the number of species recognized in 

 the United States has increased fivefold. Peck himself de- 

 scribed a large number, and Professor Atkinson added some from 

 time to time; Morgan himself named fifteen of those enumerated 

 in his monograph, while Dr. Murrill added a goodly number, 

 especially from the poorly explored regions of the West and 

 South. 



Many of the ninety odd species now on record for the United 

 States are too incompletely known and described. The difficulty 

 which Morgan encountered in properly placing species can be 

 easily read between his fines. Those which he himself collected 

 and studied, he had no difficulty in placing under the appropriate 

 section to which, by their structure and development, they 

 naturally belonged; but when he was compelled to place a 

 species described by someone else, he frequently had to guess at 

 the possible structure of such plants, and sometimes he vacillated 

 as regards the section into which the plant should be placed. 

 The present writer has experienced these same difficulties, and 

 some of the points involved wiU be discussed under "Comments" 

 later in the paper. 



The name Lepiota wa'S used for the first time by Persoon. 

 He applied it to those white-spored Agarics with an annulus on 

 the stem and with innate scales on the pileus. Lange (9) in 

 transferring Ar miliaria mellea to the genus Lepiota seems to have 

 gone back to Persoon's broad characterization of the group. 

 Lange, however, uses other arguments to support his attitude. 



