2 INTRODUCTION 



been suggested up until recently merely involved spelling the name 

 differently (see Hydrophorus Quelet), or simply involved raising the 

 "Tribes" of the treatment in Epicrisis to generic rank. Kummer ( 1871 ) 

 was apparently the first to do this; though both Wiinsche (1877) and 

 Karsten (1879) accepted these rankings, they were not recognized by 

 many investigators until comparatively recent times, and even now 

 there still exists a difference of opinion. The family Hygrophoraceae 

 (as Hygrophores) was proposed by Roze (1876), and most recently 

 was taken up by Singer ( 1951 ) in which treatment he recognized five 

 genera: Hygrophorus for species with bilateral gill trama (Fries Lima- 

 cium and part of Camarophyllus), Comarophyllus for those with inter- 

 woven hymenophoral trama, Hygrocybe with "parallel" trama in the 

 hymenophore, and Bertrandia Heim, characterized by species with a 

 latex and pseudocystidia. Heim (1957) has since added the genus 

 Bertrandiella and Hodophilus. Neohygrophorus was erected to care 

 for Hygrophorus angelesianus Smith, an Hygrophorus-like fungus with 

 amyloid spores. Singer (1958) himself, in his studies of the genus, has 

 also proposed a number of segregates. Hygrotrama was erected for 

 species intermediate between Hygrocybe and Camarophyllus but hav- 

 ing an hymeniform epicutis over the pileus. Humidicutis ( Singer, 1958, 

 p. 225) was proposed for certain species of Hygrocybe which lacked 

 clamp connections on the hyphae of the carpophore and which pos- 

 sessed unstable pigments in the presence of 10% KOH. Hygroaster 

 was proposed by Singer ( 1955 ) for the nodulose-spored Hygrophorus 

 nodidisporus Dennis. These constitute the bulk of the names used for 

 Hygrophori. Mention should be made of the fact, however, that the 

 name Godfrinia Maire was applied to Hygrophorus conicus Fr. ( Maire, 

 1902), that Murrill used the spelling "Hydrocybe" in the North Ameri- 

 can Flora, vol. 9, 1916, following Karsten's misspelling of the name in 

 1879. Hydrocybe is a name generally associated with the genus Corti- 

 narius. Also, the name Hydrophorus Earle (1909), attributed to Bat- 

 tarea, with H. coccineus as type has been proposed. In spite of all the 

 names that have been proposed there has been relatively little varia- 

 tion in the concept that these waxy-gilled, white-spored agarics rep- 

 resented a readily recognizable phylogenetic group. 



Fries (1874) was the first, so far as we have ascertained, to sug- 

 gest groupings below the rank of section (tribes). He proposed five 

 subheadings based on color of the pileus for Limacium: "Albi 1. albolu- 

 tescentes" for the white to yellowish species, "Rubentes" for H. erubes- 

 cens and related species, "Fulventes I. flavi" for the brown to tan or 

 bright yellow ones, "Olivaceoumbrini" for the olivaceous ones, and 

 "Fuscocinerei I. lividi" for the gray to blackish species. We have re- 



