HYMENOMYCETES 129 



Agaricus, in which the gills were membranaceous, and persistent, 

 — that is to say, not melting or deliquescent when mature ; the 

 trama was continuous with the substance of the pileus, passing 

 down between the folds of the hymenium, and the edge of the 

 gills was acute. The substance was fleshy and putrescent, not 

 reviving after being dried. In other genera, as in Coprinus 

 and Bolbitius, the gills deliquesced when mature. In such 

 genera as Parvus, Lentinus, and Zenzites the substance was not 

 fleshy but somewhat leathery, and not putrescent. In the 

 large genus Marasmius, as well as in Xerotus and Trogia, the 

 substance was thin but dry, not putrescent ; readily desiccated, 

 and reviving when moistened. In Russula the substance was 

 fleshy and putrescent, but there were peculiar and special 

 features which severed it from Agaricus, approaching Lactarius, 

 in which latter a peculiar milky secretion afforded a distinctive 

 feature. Hygrophorus and Cortinarius were two other rather 

 large genera with distinctive characters, to be alluded to here- 

 after. Cantharellus and Schizophyllum afforded prominent 

 characters in their thickened or splitting gills. Hence it will 

 be seen that the old genus Agaricus had one or two prominent 

 characters, which distinguished it from all the other genera of 

 the Agaricini, and held together one of the largest genera of 

 Fungi, which at the present time would not number less than 

 3000 species. For the purposes of classification Fries sub- 

 divided this genus into five groups, according to the colour of 

 the spores — the Leucosporae, in which the spores were typically 

 white or but slightly coloured ; the Hyporhodii, in which the 

 spores were pink or salmon-coloured ; the Dermini, in which 

 the spores were tawny or some shade of rusty brown; the 

 Pratellae, in which the spores were brownish purple or very 

 dark brown ; and the Goprinarii, in which the spores were 

 black. These divisions are substantially maintained in more 

 recent times, but applied to the whole of the Agaricini. 



In the Friesian system each of these groups was sub- 

 divided, into subgenera, which had their analogues in part in 

 the kindred groups. In a Clavis published by Mr. Worth- 

 ington Smith he indicated the corresponding subgenera in 

 each of the five sections, as far as they were represented in the 

 British flora. All this disappeared when Professor Saccardo 



