24 Dansk Botanisk Arkiv, Bd. 2, Nr. 7. 



/. sabrimosa, I. asterospora etc., all very common species which 

 were nol then recognised as such. »Type- specimens«, by means 

 of which the priority-right to an old name could he ascertained, 

 as a rule do not exist; and the »type-figures« may he inter- 

 preted to represent anything or nothing. 



Classification. After the discovery of the characteristic 

 differences in the shape of the spores, the splitting up of the 

 genus Inocybe by creating a new genus (Clypeus (Karsten), Astro- 

 sporina (Schroeter)) to embrace all the rough-spored species, was 

 soon proposed. But it appears to me hardly the right thing 

 to do. Inocybe in the old sense is a very »natural genus: one 

 almost at a glance recognises an Inocybe. And to disband such 

 a natural entity I cannot consider an improvement. 



But of course the characteristic microscopic differences must 

 needs be accorded a prominent place in any classification pro- 

 pounded. And consequently a rational systematic classification 

 cannot entirely follow the lines laid down by Fries. This eminent 

 mycologist, it will be remembered, divided the genus in several 

 series, chiefly characterized by the nature of the surface of the 

 cap. But although these characters are evidently very valuable 

 for purposes of classification, they lack a good deal in precise- 

 ness, and moreover are greatly influenced by the age of the 

 specimens and the atmospheric conditions. Not so the micro- 

 scopic characteristics. I therefore accord to these the more pro- 

 minent place. 



Of the microscopic characteristics the shape of the spore 

 is the one most easily ascertained and most marked. We thus 

 get two main tribes or subgenera, the smooth-spor ed (Eu- 

 Inocybe) and the rou g h-spored (Clypeus). But this latter tribe 

 again includes two different types: In most of the rough-spored 

 species the spore is substellate or nodulose, but in some few 

 small ones the spore is subglobose or broadly oval, set with 

 long, acute or somewhat obtuse spinelets. 



The cy s tid i a come next in importance for purposes of 

 classification. Cystidia of some kind or other are never wanting 

 in the Inocybes. But while a good many, especially of the 

 smoolh-spored species — have cystidia of a rather trivial kind 

 (inflated clubshaped or the like, almost like overgrown sterile 

 basidia) the rest have cystidia of a kind particular to this genus: 

 fusoid-venlricose or almost bottleshaped with a crest of small 

 cristalloid muriculate bodies. In some species both kinds occur 





