CHAPTEE XXVIII 



APPENDIX ON COLLECTING 



It will be manifest from the foregoing chapters that the im- 

 portance of obtaining mature and perfect specimens for 

 examination and determination cannot be too highly estimated. 

 It is not only essential for the determination of any species, 

 but in many cases even the genus, that fructification should 

 be present. In classification nearly everything depends upon 

 the spore, and if no spores are present, and only the vegetative 

 system is developed, any identification is the merest chance. 

 The true relations of an Agaric can only be sought after the 

 colour of the spores has been determined. This is readily 

 done by cutting off the stipes, and inverting the pileus with 

 the gills downwards upon a piece of paper, and allowing it to 

 remain all night in that position. In the morning the spores, 

 if mature, will have fallen upon the paper, in radiating lines, 

 corresponding to the gills. If it is suspected that the spores 

 are white, it is preferable to invert the pileus on a piece of 

 black paper, but, if they are presumed to be coloured, then 

 white paper will suffice. When the colour of the spores has 

 been determined, it can be seen to which of the primary 

 groups the species must be referred, whether Leucosporae, 

 Ehodosporae, or any other. This method may be resorted to 

 with all the Hymenomycetes with advantage, although it is 

 nowhere so important as with the Agaricini. 



The value of the spores in classification is not confined to 

 the Hymenomycetes, but pervades the whole of the Fungi. 

 Those minute species in which the fructification is enclosed in 

 a perithecium, having the habit of a Sphaeria, must, in the first 

 instance, exhibit fruit before it can be affirmed whether, by 



