DRAWINGS OF BAS1DIOMYCETES AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 89 



what acrid in the throat" ; under A. subpalmatus he says, "Taste 

 very bitter at the tongue's end, did not try further." 



Another fact has come out very strongly, viz., that Fries de- 

 pended a great deal on coloured plates for descriptions of the species 

 with which he was poorly acquainted ; he of course had no other 

 material when real specimens were not forthcoming. I can clearly 

 see that some of the Friesian descriptions have been drawn up from 

 faded or discoloured plates, and that the colours given by Fries 

 have sometimes never existed in nature. 



Some published plates of fungi, both old and new, are extremely 

 bad both in drawing and colour; some mycological "artists" do 

 not seem to have possessed the most elementary knowledge of 

 drawing, and the illustrations compare unfavourably even with the 

 art works of paheolithic man. Sometimes a particularly bad plate 

 seems to have inspired a specific name ; for instance, I have in past 

 times wondered why Fries called a certain fungus Agaricxis pessun- 

 datus. Dr. H. T. Wharton, who has supplied meanings to Fries' 

 specific names for Dr. Cooke, says, " The intended meaning is not 

 clear." Now, if Dr. Wharton had only looked at the original 

 plate from which Fries drew up his description, he would have 

 seen an almost shapeless object which looks as if it had been 

 danced upon by a clod-hopper — hence the appropriate name of 

 pessuruiatus. Pessundatus is frequent with local yokels. 



In the new series of drawings great attention has been paid to 

 colour, and MS. notes have been taken, as the work has progressed, 

 of the colour of every species. Some of the colours given by Fries 

 are very indefinite — as the " colour of a sugar-cake " or of a " brick." 

 One requires to know the exact tint of a Swedish brick or sugar- 

 cake ; both vary in this country considerably. So does the odour 

 of soap, so frequently mentioned by Fries. What was the odour of 

 Swedish soap fifty years ago ? 



Dr. Cooke's published Illustrations of the Af/aricini have 

 been very useful ; many of these have been taken from Mr. 

 Phillips', Mr. Massee's, or my own drawing?, and, as I have had 

 all the original material at hand, I have been able to compare all 

 together. The following slips in this work, as regards some of my 

 own drawings, may be noted. The large drawing of Agaric** strobili- 

 formis with no artist's name is from my original ; it was not found 

 by me at King's Lynn, as stated on the plate, but at Micheldever, 

 Hants. In the plate of A. adnatus, a young example, not my work, 

 is added to the plate. In the letterpress accompanying A. GeorgUw 

 the fungus is said to be named in honour of my wife ; but Georgina 

 is not and never w T as my wife. In A. resplendens there is no lavender 

 colour in my original. A. acerbus is not from a drawing of mine, 

 but from a sketch by W. W. Saunders. In A. nictitans the deep 

 red-brown spots on the gills as given by me are omitted. In A. 

 albelliis the two lower figures only are mine ; the three upper ones 

 are from some other source. A. elixus is very unlike my original 

 in colour. A. geotropns var. subinvolutus is not from my original, 

 but from an original by W. W. Saunders. A. leucophyUus is not 

 like my original. A. directus (so called) is not the A. direct us of 

 B. & Br.; the original examples and a drawing by Mr. Broome 



