38 



Report on Botany. 



But the characters of that subgenus are clearly indicated, 

 derived, it is true, from analogous subgenera in other sec- 

 tions, and perhaps liable in some minor points to be 

 slightly modified, yet essentially so well known that were 

 I in some mysterious way informed that to-morrow 1 

 should find an agaric with white spores which should be- 

 long to a new subgenus, I should predict its characters to 

 be as follows : " Hymenophorum distinct from the fieshy 

 stem, lamellse free, annulus none. Habitat on rotten 

 wood." In like manner were I called upon to give the cha- 

 racters of a new subgenus of the section with flesh-colored 

 spores without seeing any specimen, following the analo- 

 gies indicated in Mr. Smith's article, I should confidently 

 say : " Hymenophorum confluent and homogeneous with 

 the fleshy stem, lamellae attached to the stem, annulus 

 present ;" these being the essential characters of the subge- 

 nera known to exist in other sections and analogous to the 

 only unrepresented subgenus in the section under consi- 

 deration. Of the fifty subgenera indicated in Mr. Smith's 

 " Tabular view of the subgenera of Agaricus," thirty-four 

 are known really to exist, and the author thinks that if the 

 agarics of all the world were known, most, if not all, the 

 remaining sixteen supposed or theoretical subgenera would 

 be found to have an actual existence. Admitting this sup- 

 position to be a correct one, and the probabilities are cer- 

 tainly in its favor, and what an incentive have we to the 

 study of nature, what an argument in favor of a Creative 

 Intelligence whose works, in the midst of endless variety, 

 exhibit the utmost order and the strictest system, and al- 

 most reveal to us the very thoughts of the All-wise Power 

 that created them. Such capabilities for classification cer- 

 tainly command our admiration. 



It may not be inappropriate, in view of the field meetings 

 held by the Institute during the past summer, to notice 

 an interesting feature of some similar meetings recently 



