96 
MIMICRY IN FUNGI. 
By M. C. Cooxn, LL.D., &e. 
For thirty or forty years the term ‘‘ mimicry ” has been applied to certain resem- 
blances in plants to those of other species often widely separated from them. It 
has been objected that the term implies a conscious imitation, of which plants are 
incapable, and hence another term, that of ‘“‘ homoplasy,” has been proposed, but 
not generally adopted; therefore, with all its imperfections, we prefer to adhere 
to the one which is best known. We will not assume that the resemblances to 
which we wish to call attention are other than remarkable coincidences, but even 
as such they are worthy of note. Although a number of instances have been in- 
dicated amongst flowering plants, very slight attention has been paid to these 
coincidences in cryptogams.* Nevertheless, several instances have been adduced 
by Mr. Worthington Smith, to which others may be added. These are chiefly 
confined to the Agaric family, and although some of them striking, they are 
scarcely so satisfactory as they would have been had the resembling plants been 
further removed from each other. Thus, one poisonous species, Agaricus, Hebe- 
loma,. fustibilis, greatly resembling in appearance the edible mushroom, Agaricus, 
Psalliota, campestris, came up in great numbers upon a mushroom bed, and might 
have caused a disastrous result, had not the fact been detected by an adept. 
Another instance was that of a mass of fungi which also made their appearance on 
amushroom bed. At first sight, these chiefly resembled the variety of an edible 
species which not unusually comes up in clusters on old beds. It has white spores, 
with a lobed and undulated white pileus (Agaricus, Clitocybe, dealbatus). The 
imitating fungus had the same wavy cap, white colour, and fungoid odour, but the 
spores were pink, and its structural features were distinctly those of quite a differ- 
ent species (Agaricus, Clitopilus, orcella). In this instance both species were 
quite innocuous. Two wholly distinct but very similar fungi commonly grow 
together on wood ashes or scorched places, where charcoal has been burnt; these 
are Cantharellus carbonarius and Agaricus, Collybia, atratus. In similar localities, 
and under like conditions, two other diverse fungi are ordinarily found growing 
together, Ayaricus, Flammula, carbonarius and Agaricus, Flammula, spumosus, but 
these are very closely allied species. Similarly, also, the closely allied Agaricus, 
Hypholoma, fasciculuris, and Agaricus, Hypholoma, capnoides, or another pair, 
Agaricus, Flammula, alnicola, and Agaricus, Flammula, conissans, are scarely un- 
exceptional instances, as compared with each other, but either of the first may be 
taken with either of the last pair, and the coincidence of colour, form, size, mode 
of growth, and even habitat, is complete. With any of these the recently de- 
scribed Ayaricus, Clitocybe, Sudleri, with white spores, have a striking resemblance. 
So that here we have five yellow species found growing on wood, to which three or 
* Gardeners’ Chronicle, February roth, 1877. 
