CLASSIFICATION OF AGARICS ; I -. 



genus [nocybe in having innately silky or scaly <li> capa, bu( [nocvbe 

 differs in having paler Bpores, a more Bcanty, fibrillose-cortina and 

 often with \ r errucose pointed cystidia on the gills. The genus Flam 

 inula often has rusty spores, bul is lignicolous. Many of the kim • 

 arc known to be edible and while no information is at hand that 

 any of them are poisonous, the flavor of mam' of them is insipid 

 or disagreeable, and others have as yel nol been reported on. 



The species of the genus Cortinarius are verj numerouH. l*wk 

 lias described 83 Bpecies from North America. Pries, in his Inal 

 complete work on the Hymenomycetea of Europe, records _'•'. I 

 Bpecies; of these lie found a large majority in Sweden, where he 

 had exceptional opportunity to study them by reason of the aston- 

 ishing number of species and individuals which occur in thai 

 inuist and cool climate. To quote from his Epicrisia (1836-! 

 "No genus is more natural nor mure sharply distinguished from 

 others. Beginners alone would confuse them with the brown-spored 

 genera, while experienced persons can distinguish them by their 

 habil at the first glance. But although it is a greal natural group, 

 the species arc so intimately related among themselves thai t<> 'lis 

 tinguish the separate ones is almost to be despaired of. The Large 



mass and number of individuals compose at least half of the Agarics 

 of Northern forests"; and in Systems Mycologia (1821), 

 "I did not admit even one-half the number thai I had mel by dili- 

 gent search, and only included those thai agreed in their primary 

 Characters; very many were disregarded. In the young Btage and 



immediately after a rain, they are quite easily distinguished. After 

 becoming discolored and in age or dry weather even the large, well 



marked species are scarcely separable." 



The PILEUS may be viscid, dry. silky or scaly, or hygrophanous, 



and these characters are used in the reparation of the BUbgenera. 



The color is often very attractive: violet, purple, red, yellow, green 

 or shades of brown, bul in most cases it fades into some shade of 

 brown or tan in age. The size varies greatly; in the subgenera 

 Inoloina, Bulbopodium and Phlegmacium the plants are nsunlli 

 of large size. In Dermocybe and Hydrocybe they are rather small. 

 Telamonia is represented by all sizes. The <;il.l.s are. oexl to the 

 cortina, the most definite means of recognizing the genus. When 

 young they may be whitish. Yellow, green or olive, blue, violet, 

 purple, red or shades of brown. As they mature, they become dia 

 colored from the cinnamon or rusty-brown spore- which cling 

 the surface for some time, often producing a powderj appearai 

 The color of the young gills must be known in order to determine 



