CLASSIFICATION 75 



point of importance in recognizing the gills is the rigid, or what 

 is usually termed the waxy nature of the gills, which are com- 

 paratively thick where they join the cap, and gradually taper to 

 a sharp edge, resembling a section of a blade of a razor. They are 

 usually distant from each other, and in this respect approach 

 the genus Cantharellus, which differs in having the edge of the 

 gills thick and blunt. The gills are often decurrent, but some- 

 times adnate or only adnexed. The cap may be regular, but more 

 frequently it is folded or plicate below, and the margin is often 

 irregularly wavy or lobed. It is generally smooth, and often 

 polished and shining. As the cap expands, the gills, that were 

 originally adnate or adnexed, break away and appear to be free 

 from the stem, as in reality they are ; but on careful examination 

 the portion of the gill that was originally attached to the stem can 

 be distinctly seen, and their true original mode of attachment 

 determined. The stem is usually polished externally, and hollow 

 or stuffed. 



A few species are universally acknowledged as edible ; none are 

 known to be directly poisonous. The common buff-coloured 

 species, called H. pratensis, common on open grass-lands, is an 

 excellent edible species, as are the pure white H. niveus and H. vir- 

 gineus, met with in similar situations. 



The species without exception grow on the ground. 



Clttocybe 



A very large genus of fungi, including, to my mind, certain 

 sections that require more care and experience combined, for their 

 correct determination, than is the case in any other genus. This 

 is especially true of the white species so common in our woods, 

 which in their intricacies of relationship may be compared with 

 the brambles, roses, and hawkweeds, etc., and unfortunately, 

 owing to the absence of sexuality in the agarics, the mycologist 

 cannot fall back on hybridization. No one morphological or 

 structural character is constant throughout the genus. It is 

 generally stated that the gills are more or less decurrent, and this 

 statement is true of many species, but not all ; in some the gills are 

 adnate or adnexed, but in these last forms the remaining characters 

 are so typical of Clttocybe that such species are kept in the genus. 

 The gills are never sinuate, which separates this genus from Tricho- 

 lonia, with which it agrees in having a fibrous stem. Clitocyhe 

 agrees with OmpJialia in often having decurrent gills, but the 

 last-named genus differs markedly in having the stem corticated 

 or polished externally, instead of being loosely fibrous. Collyhia 

 differs from the present genus in having the gills adnexed, and 

 distinctly rounded behind. 



The cap is usually fleshy at the disc, and becomes quite thin 

 towards the edge ; there is a general tendency to become more or 



