224 BRITISH FUNGI 



at the disc, remainder pallid, even, i-i^ in. across, edge sometimes 

 bearing fragments of the veil ; gills free, narrowed behind, thin, 

 crowded at hrst, then becoming rather distant, pale green, then deep 

 bluish green ; stem smooth, even, sometimes very slightly wavy, 

 pallid, mealy upwards, li- 2i in. long; spores pale green. 



Readily distinguished by the green gills. 



On the ground in woods. 



Sub-Family Riiodospore.e 



The agarics included in the present family are usually spoken of 

 as the pink-spored group ; as a matter of fact this is not literally 

 true, no species having truly pink gills. The real tint varies from 

 pale ffesh-colour — that produced by a thin wash of the water-colour 

 known as light red — to deep salmon-colour. As throughout the 

 gill-bearing fungi, the ultimate colour of the gills is due to the colour 

 of the mature spores, and when young the gills are colourless, as are 

 also the immature spores. In the Rhodosporeae the gills usually 

 remain colourless or quite pale for some time, and in consequence 

 often prove very perplexing to the beginner, who is apt to endeavour 

 to run down a pink-spored fungus under the mistaken idea that it 

 belongs to the white-spored section. If such fungi, after cutting 

 off the stem, are placed gills downwards on white paper, and allowed 

 to remain for some hours, the coloured spores will be clearly seen 

 in the spore-print ; the gills will also have assumed the mature 

 salmon-coloured condition. 



The present family is, numerically, the second smallest included in 

 the Agaricaceae. It would be an interesting problem to ascertain 

 the reason why agarics with pink spores cannot hold their own, and 

 extend at an even rate, to say the least, with fungi having brown or 

 white spores. Many of the species are minute and of the lowest 

 type of structure, whereas the most highly evolved types are few in 

 number, and rare, not only in this country, but throughout the 

 world. 



ANALYSIS OF THE GILNERA 



A. ( J ills quite free from the stem. 



Stem with a large, free volva surrounding its l)ase ; ring absent. 



Valvar id. 

 \'ol\'a and ring both absent. PI life us. 



B. Gills more or less attached to the dem — adnate or adncxcd. 

 (iills adnexed and sinuate ; edge of cap incurved when young ; 



substance of stem fibrous. Entoloma. 



Gills adnexed, soon separating from the stem ; edge of cap 

 straight when young. Nolanea. 



Gills adnexed, soon separating from the stem ; edge of cap in- 

 curved when young. Leptonia. 



