214 Fungi 



series we find closely related forms making subgenera 

 which correspond with certain subgenera of the other 

 series in every respect save the color of the lamella? and 

 the spores. Thus the five subgenera Mycena^ Leptonia, 

 Gain-'/, Psathyra and Psathyrella, belonging respectively 

 to the live series already characterized, all agree in their 

 slender form, suboonica] or bell-shaped cap and hollow 

 stem, and but for their differently colored spores they 

 would all have been placed in one division instead ol being 

 distributed in five. I have thus noticed this unusaal use 

 of color alone in the classification of these plants because 

 it is without example in any other instance save that of 

 the Alga 1 . These are divided into three series, red, 

 green and olive colored Alga-, one <>r another of these 

 colors not only characterizing the spores, but also pervad- 

 ing, for the most part, the whole plant. And it is worthy 

 of remark that in these two classes oi plants, the Fungi 

 and the Alg;e, the departure from the ordinary style of 

 plant coloration is more wide and more general than in 

 any other class. In the latter, the Chlorospermous divi- 

 sion exhibits the green color, but this division scarcely 

 constitutes a third part of the Alga*. In the former, a 

 pure vegetable green is rarely seen. Now and then an 

 Agaric may be found, having grayish green or brownish 

 green tints, or a bluish green mold may remind US by its 

 color of its vegetable character, but these are exceptional 

 cases, not at all prevalent. We might naturally expect of 

 plants that love to grow in secluded recesses and shaded 

 places, or that spring up and develop in the darkness of 

 the night, a pale sickly color or at least an absence of 

 green hues, but we would scarcely be prepared to look 

 among such plants tor the beautiful and infinitely varied 

 shades of yellow, red and brown that are so prevalent in 

 the Fungi. The color- are sometimes brilliant, but more 

 often without especial splendor. It is rarely that an in- 



