204 CLAVIS AGARICINORUM. 



very Inte, but a group of wliicli A. gamhosus, Fr., is the type, is 

 strictly vernal, and the species constituting it have long been con- 

 sidered special delicacies ; the greater number of the remaining 

 species are also edible, and have a pleasant odour like that of new 

 flour, but a few are rank and suspicious, of which A. saponaceus, Tr., 

 is an example. This very large subgenus has been subdivided by 

 Fries in the following manner : — 1. Pileus viscid. 2. Pileus floccu- 

 lose. 3. Pileus rigid. 4. Pileus silky. 5. Pileus spotted or mi- 

 nutely cracked. 6. Pileus spongy. 7. Pileus hygrophanous. In 

 Hygrophorus, Lactarius, and Rimiila, the general structure is much 

 the same as in Tricholoma, but they form well-marked genera. Hy- 

 grophorus is distinguished by its waxy nature ; Lactarius by its milky 

 gills and flesh ; and Russula, by its rigid brittle gills generally in one 

 series and vesiculose flesh. The species figured is Agaricus (Tricho- 

 loma) terreus, Schaeff. Spores -0002" x -00013". 



Subgenus 5. Clitocybe, Fr. Syst. Myc. vol. i. p. 78 (Plate I. fig. 

 5). — Pileus, generally fleshy in the disk, obtuse, plane or depressed, 

 hygrophanous or not hygrophanous; stem confluent and homogeneous 

 with the hymenophorum, elastic, with an outer coat, covered with 

 minute fibres ; gills acutely adnate, or decurrent. The fibrillose outer 

 coat of Clitocybe (and sometimes of Tricholoma and Pleurotus) must 

 not be confounded with the truly fibrous bark of CoUyhia, Myceua, 

 Omphalia, and their analogues. — Hab. All are terrestrial. 



Clitocybe corresponds with CUtopilHS, Plate II. fig. 14, and Flam- 

 mula, Plate III. fig. 21. The species are generally small, though 

 some are very large ; many possess an agreeable odour, but few only 

 are known to be edible. Most of the species appear late in the autumn 

 or in early winter. In Caulharellus the gills are strongly decurrent, 

 but they are reduced to thick veins or fohls. The species of Ilygro- 

 phori, with decurrent gills, can be easily separated from Clitocybe, 

 by their waxy nature; and Lepista is known by the decurrent gills 

 separating from the hymenophorum. The species figured is Agaricus 

 (Clitocybe) geotrupus. Bull. Spores -00028" X -0002", they sometimes 

 have a slight tendency to become echinate ; spines are greatly deve- 

 loped in the var. subinvolutas, Batsch, a single spore of which is shown 

 at J. 



Subgenus 6. Pleurotus, Fr. Epicr. p. 129 (Plate I. fig. 6). — 

 Veil evanescent, or none; pileus fleshy in the larger species, with a 



