A MUCH NAMED AGARIC. 

 BY H. C. BEARDSLEE. 



A number of our fungi have certainly been blessed with an 

 abundance of names, appearing with great frequency as "new spe- 

 cies." One very attractive species, which is found occasionally at 

 Asheville, seems, however, to be conspicuous in this regard. Usually 

 ^^^^^^ the various authors agree fairly well as to genus, 

 ^H^HHPl separating the "new species" because of some 

 ^^^^_ minor or mistaken points of difference. The 



^IV^ I plant to which I refer seems unique in being 



referred to four different genera, and also to 



four of the great groups based on spore color. 

 It figures as Lepiota, Inocybe, Psalliota, and 

 Lepista, which would give it nearly all the spore 

 colors possible. I suspect it also of figuring as 

 ^m \ an American "new species" in still a fifth genus, 



< \ though I have seen no specimens to verify this. 



___ ||| This plant is Bulliard's Lepiota haemato- 



P"~ sperma, figured by Cooke as Inocybe echinata, 



described by Stevenson as Psalliota echinata, 

 Fifl 519 and considered by Bresadola as rather a Lepista. 



The plant is very striking, and in perfection is one of our hand- 

 somest species. With us it is not large an inch to two and a half 

 inches tall with a pileus a half inch to an inch and a half broad. The 

 pileus is dark gray, and is covered with a mealy coat of the same 

 color. This covering leaves an annulus as the plant develops, which 

 very quickly disappears, leaving no trace behind. In age the whole 

 plant is smooth and bare. The gills are strongly suggestive of our 

 common field mushroom, though of a darker red. The spores are 

 dingy or red, according to circumstances, and are 6 by 4 mic. 



One can readily understand the reference of this species to Psall- 

 iota, for a perfect specimen would at once be pronounced a gray 

 Psalliota and confidently "looked for in that genus until the spore 

 print had been obtained. Why Inocybe is hard to guess. It has not 

 the correct spore color; nor has it any of the usual characteristics of 

 that genus. It certainly is not a characteristic Lepiota. The photo- 

 graph shows its ordinary appearance. It is rare in America. 



POLYPORUS TUBERASTER IN JAPAN. 



"I have read with great interest your note on Polyporus tuheraster, which 

 occurs also m this country. Several years ago Dr. Shirai, Professor of Pathology in 

 the Agricultural College, Tokyo University, found that this occurred in Yomagata 

 id was quite the same as a Chinese fungus which is used in medicine in that 

 country even now. The Chinese use only the sclerotium of the fungus in medicine. 

 IJr. Shirai cultivates the sclerotium in a pot and is getting two or three fructifica- 

 tions every year." S. Kawamura, Botanic Institution, Tokyo, Japan. 



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