1896.] MWekney. — Fimgi fro7?t Bmckenstow?ij Co. Dubli7i. 7 



species. An example will serve to show how this plan 

 works. lyet us take an agaric with the gills free from {i.e. not 

 touching) the stem. If such a specimen had white spores it 

 would be in sub-genus Lepiota, if pink, then ChamcEota, if brown, 

 ihenPholiota, if purple, then Psalliota. Again, an agaric with 

 ** sinuate" gills is, if white-spored, in Tricholoma, if pink, in 

 Entolojna; if brown, in Hebelovia, and if purple, in Hypholonta. 

 Neither character is represented in the black-spored series. 

 Thus we have explained the names in brackets with which 

 most Fungus-lists commence. In the present case the species 

 Q>i Agaricus 2iVidL its allies are remarkably few, not a single 

 specimen of the large genera Russula, Lactaruis, and 

 Cortinariiis having been found. The reason would seem to be 

 that the warm wet weather in August brought these great 

 toadstools to maturity six weeks earlier than usual, and that 

 they had already ripened their spores and died by the com- 

 mencement of October. That this is not mere supposition is 

 shown by the fact that in mid- August, whilst cycling through 

 the beautiful wood near Glenealy, having been compelled to 

 dismount and shelter from a tremendous downpour, I col- 

 lected twenty species of the largest Agarics within the 

 sheltered space under my own and a few neighbouring trees, 

 as well as such a host of smaller sorts that all the available 

 pieces of letters, envelope-backs, &c., which I had about me, 

 were insufficient to write down the names. I emptied the con- 

 tents of the tool-bag into my pockets and filled it with the 

 smaller species. The hour and three quarters I spent under 

 these trees was well emplo3^ed. 



Passing by Agaricus and its grimy poor relation Coprhms, a 

 black-spored genus which, white and tender when placed in 

 the vasculum, emerges from it next morning an inky mass of 

 loathsome deliquescence — we come next to a couple of 

 species of Tremella. Fungus-jelly they might be called, the first 

 bright yellow, the second, as its name indicates, a dingy grey. 

 We find them on dead branches, the tough bark of which they 

 are able to crack, gelatinous as they are, in their efforts to 

 expand. The puff-balls come next, Lycoperdon and Sclera^ 

 derma. We found them in all stages, from a tiny nodule, not 

 bigger than a pin's head, just emerging from the mycelial 

 cord — fit research material for the student of development — 



