48 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Doctor Peck named and described 41 species of Inocybe, some of 

 which were originally placed in the old sections of Hebeloma and 

 Inocybe in the system of Fries. Of these, 8 are referable to Euro- 

 pean species as synonyms, 2 are better Hebelomas, and 30 are 

 retained as valid. Paxillus strigosus Pk., later included by 

 Peck in his monograph as an Inocybe, is a plant with anomalous 

 characters and here excluded. Inocybe sterlingii Pk. 

 and Inocybe vatricosoides Pk., are referred to Hebe- 

 loma because of the viscid pileus on the one hand, and the absence 

 of cystidia on the other. 



From the standpoint of morphology, the species with smooth, 

 subellipsoid spores and no cystidia can be considered as the simplest 

 form of Inocybe, intimately related to the simpler forms of Cor- 

 tinarious and Hebeloma, the three genera each in its own 

 way becoming specialized from this common base. The next step 

 could be conceived in the appearance of the subreniform spore with 

 obtuse ends which is peculiar to most of the section of Inocybes 

 lacking cystidia. It would appear probable that the next section 

 with ellipsoid spores and cystidia was differentiated from the simplest 

 form with ellipsoid spores. That the thin-walled cystidia came first 

 is evident by their rarity in some species and possibly by other, a! 

 present obscure, characteristics due to their origin in the early stages 

 of the plants. In certain few species, not included here, the spores 

 show only a slight and obscure angularity, but marked enough to be 

 detected repeatedly. A few species, of which I. maritimoides 

 Pk. is an example, have angular spores and cystidia but the spores 

 are not, or very faintly, nodulose. Here it would appear, then, is 

 the bridge to the rough-spored species wdth cystidia, and it is a sig- 

 nificant fact that scarcely a half dozen, if that many, species are 

 authentically known in the whole genus which have rough spores 

 and at the same timie lack the cystidia. Even in the few species 

 included here, for example, I. leptophylla Atk. and I . s u b - 

 fulva Pk., these are segregated with difficulty from I. lanu- 

 ginosa Fr.-Bres. and I. calospora Quel, respectively. I. 

 leptophylla was connected to I. lanuginosa by Atkinson 

 himself by proposing a variet, which he called I. leptophylla 

 var. cystomarginata, because true cystidia occur on the edge 

 of the gills only in this form. In the case of I. subfulva, cyst- 

 like cystidia, intermediate between sterile cells and thin-walled 

 cystidia can be observed in the hymenium. Here we have, however. 



