THE GENUS MARASMIUS. 



The synonymy of the Marasmii appears to me less entangled 

 than that of most other genera of the Agarics. Presumably this 

 is chiefly due to the fact that these fungi can be preserved. 

 While dried specimens of most other agarics are hardly recogni- 

 zable, type-specimens of a Marasmius can be kept for exami- 

 nation in a herbarium in a comparatively good condition. And 

 while the description of f. inst. a Coprinus or a Cortinarius to 

 be of any value must almost be written down on the spot, at 

 the right moment, a Marasmius requires no hurried work: it 

 can be correctly described in the laboratory days or weeks 

 after the foray. — Still a good deal of ambiguity exists, and 

 probably the number of names is considerably larger than the 

 number of species. Thus in a recent work (F. Bataille : Flore 

 monographique des Marasmes d'Europe) the author describes 96 

 species (while Fries in Hymenomycetes Eur. only has about 

 60). But of these Bataille has only seen 24 (one fourth), that 

 is to say about the same number and almost the same species 

 as Fries himself knew and which are also on record from Den- 

 mark in recent years. This suggests to me that at least some 

 of the other 72 species — when properly compared and criti- 

 cally examined — will be found to be mere names. 



But while well worked up by the earlier mycologists, the 

 classification of the genus Marasmius has not profited much 

 by modern methods of investigation. The introduction of the 

 microscope in mycological work has not considerably altered 

 our conception of the different species. If you cannot disting- 

 uish two nearly allied species by means of a pocket-lens, the 

 microscope in most cases is not likely to help you. Thus the 

 spores, which in most genera are of the highest value as a spe- 

 cific character (and may serve even to characterize sections or 

 subgenera), are in Marasmius almost uniform. Only a single 

 European species (which has not been found in Northern Europe) 



