210 MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



parts of the basidiocarp in the Agaricaceae is essential to a clear 

 understanding of their taxonomic value. There is needed a study 

 of development of many more species representing all the principal 

 genera and their subdivisions, as well as some of the lesser ones, 

 before we shall be in a position safely to make any generalizations 

 in regard to the prevalence of any mode of origin or development 

 of the principal parts of the fruit body, or of their relative taxono- 

 mic importance. These studies on the development of Lepiota 

 cristata and L. seminuda are offered as a further contribution to 

 this subject. They deal chiefly with the origin, differentiation, 

 and organization of the pileus, stem, lamellae, and veil, in the young 

 primordial basidiocarps. The origin of the primordial basidio- 

 carp, and the nuclear phenomena in the ontogenetic cycle, while 

 exceedingly interesting and important problems, do not appear, 

 so far as we know at present, to be closely correlated with the 

 differentiation of the parts in the primordial fruit body. 



Lepiota cristata 

 Material. — Lepiota cristata is a small plant, usually al)out 4-6 

 cm. high, with a pileus 1-2.5 cm. broad, and the stem 2-4 mm. 

 thick. The general color is whitish, the pileus being adorned with 

 numerous dark, fibrous, more or less erect scales formed by the 

 laceration of its upper surface, more crowded over the center, thus 

 giving the plant a cristate appearance. It occurs singly, or more 

 frequently in troops; rarely are the plants so closely clustered that 

 two or three may be joined at the base. It grows on the ground 

 in woods and open places from spring until autumn. The material 

 for this study was collected, fixed in chromacetic and imbedded 

 in paraffin by Miss Gertrude Douglass during the summer of 1914. 

 The plants were gathered chiefly along Cascadilla Creek by a path 

 in a grove of mixed hemlock spruce and hard timber, mainly oak; 

 some also from a similar grove by a path along Fall Creek, the 

 two streams bordering the Cornell University Campus on the 

 south and north sides. Where the plants occur in troops there is 

 usually an abundance of the "spawn" in the soil and individuals 

 in all stages of dc\elopment are to bo found, in such cases, the 

 spawn often continues to produce fresh indix iduals for a period 

 of one to sevxTal weeks. This succession of indi\ iduals distributed 

 on the spawn, when weather conditions arc favorable, assures the 



