' Fungi. 213 



is a Lenzites ; if the texture is soft and fleshy with the 

 edge of the lamellse obtuse, it is a Gantharellus ; with their 

 edges acute and their juice milky or colored the plant 

 is a Ladarius ; with their edges acute but with no colored 

 or milky juice it is an Agaricus ; if the lamellae dissolve 

 into an inky fluid it is a Coprinus. The genus Agaricus 

 is the largest one of the order. More than a thousand 

 species are attributed to it in the "Epicrisis" of Fries. 

 A genus so large is inconvenient and perplexing to the 

 student, especially wheu, as in this case, all the forms can 

 be readily seen to be mere modifications of a single type. 

 "In no instance," says the immortal Fries, "not even 

 among the Composite, does nature repeat herself in so 

 many similar forms." Hence the necessity arises for sub- 

 divisions. In this case the divisions are into series and 

 subgenera. The series are five, and singularly enough, 

 they depend simply upon the color of the spores. They 

 are the Leucospori, made up of species having white spores; 

 the Hyporhodii, with flesh-colored spores ; the Dermini, 

 with ferruginous or rust-colored spores ; the Pratellce, with 

 brown or brownish purple spores ; and the Coprinarii, 

 with black spores. It becomes necessary, therefore, in 

 determining to which of these series a given specimen 

 belongs, to determine the color of the spores. This can 

 sometimes be inferred from the corresponding color of 

 the lamellBe in mature specimens, but this test is scarcely 

 reliable and it is more satisfactory to decide from direct 

 observation of the spores themselves. For this purpose 

 they are collected upon paper either black or white, according 

 as the spores are white or not, since the color of the paper 

 sometimes gives a peculiar hue to the spores. For in-' 

 stance, Panus dorsalis is described as having white spores 

 because they appear thus when collected on black paper. 

 If collected on white paper they appear to be of a beauti- 

 fully delicate flesh color. In each of the above mentioned 



