44 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



have 2-spored basidia, Xot that this appeals to me very 

 stronglv ; as a worker in the field I do not fancy 

 the use of microscopic characters for marking off genera 

 unless they are accompanied by macroscopic distinctions as 

 well. It is pleasant to be able to say unhesitatingly that 

 this is an Inocybe or that a Clavaria and so on. However, 

 1 am afraid that the field men will have to retire before 

 superior forces when an open-air mycologist like Mr. Rea 

 shews a desire to adopt Schroeter's genus Asterosporina 

 for the rough spored Inocybes, and Patouillard's 

 Androsaceus for the filiform Marasmii with warted cystidia 

 on the pileus, which are bv no means easy to observe in 

 all cases. 



But I must not enlarge further on this subject. 



In this short paper, I have only dealt in a concrete 

 manner with a comparatively unusual feature in the Agarics. 

 I have found that two sp©red basidia are not often met with 

 except among the smaller species. The large fleshy agarics 

 under natural conditions do not appear to produce any but 

 4-spored basidia : I am of course only referring to the 

 genuine agaric; among the Cantharellaceae, basidia with i 

 varied number of sterigmata are not uncommon, but among 

 the Agarics proper the 4-spored basidium is the normal 

 arrangement. Lange has shewn that this normal arrange- 

 ment is departed from in certain species of the genus Mycena. 

 He has used this feature, together with the still more useful 

 phenomenon of the cystidia on the gill edge, to construct 

 a key which enables one to identify the Mycenae of his 

 native country, and he is preparing similar keys for other 

 genera. Every mycologist is aware of the difficulty of 

 running down small specimens of Mycena and Galera. They 

 are as often as not put aside as impossible to identify with 

 sufficient accuracy to make it worth while troubling about 

 them. Doubtless many species are not recorded — one might 

 almost say they are not recordable in macroscopic terms 

 only, except perhaps by the use of a group name. The 

 relative differences cannot be described with sufficient clear- 

 ness to distinguish them, although one may carry the 

 distinguishing points in one's eye. If it is proved that 

 microscopic features are of some assistance, we many find 

 that the maze of descriptions of appalling similarity can be 

 supplied with guide posts which will put us on the road to 

 the correct identification. 



I have endeavoured to give you a glimpse of my initial 

 efforts in the microscopic study of the smaller agarics. In 

 addition to the authors cited, I have been helped by 



