137 



irifjiiuil %xiuhB. 



CLAVIS AQARICINORUM : 



an analytical key to the british agaricini, with 



characters of the genera and subgenera. 



By Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S. 



{Read before the Woolhope Club, Hereford, February 22nd, 1870.) 



(Plates C.-CV.) 



Contents. — 1-. General Observations on the Agaricini. 2. Analytical 

 Key. 3. Characters of the Genera and Subgenera of the Agaricini. 



1. General Observations on the Agaricini. 



In a large group of plants like the Agaricini, of which we have in 

 this country some seven hundred representatives, all more or less in- 

 timately allied, systematic arrangement is of the highest importance. 

 During the last half-century various attempts have been made in this 

 direction, the last and most successful behig that of the illustrious 

 Fries, in his ' Monographia Hymenomycetum Suecise,' published in 

 1856. In this work, although the author does not depart materially 

 from the vie\vs expressed in his ' Epicrisis ' (1836-38), he separates 

 several species of Jgaricas into two new subgenera {Inoloraa and Stro- 

 fliarid), removes some Tricliolomata into the genus Paxillus, and makes 

 many minor alterations. Since this work was issued, Pries has con- 

 tinued to write on the subject, and has recently established a third new 

 subgenus {Pilusace) of Agaricus, making thirty in all. The only work 

 in English that gives descriptions of all the British species is the ad- 

 mirable ' Outlines of British Fungology,' by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley 

 (1860), — which has proved invaluable during the last ten years to 

 students here and in America, where Fries' works are rare. As re- 

 gards the Hymenomycetes, Mr. Berkeley in the main adopts the views 

 of Fries, giving descriptions of many new species. 



There is perhaps no test of the value of characters so searching as 

 an analytical key, and, as far as I am aware, no one has hitherto 

 attempted to produce one for the Order Agaricini. This want I have 



VOL. VIII. [may 1; 1870.] i 



