Report on Botany. 



159 



dried specimens, a pileus was placed upon a piece of black 

 paper in the usual manner. The result was unexpected. 

 The deposited spores were colored, not white as in all spe- 

 cies of Clitocybe and as there was reason to suppose they 

 would be in this case. An examination of the collected 

 specimens revealed the fact that the lamellae, i. e,, the ra- 

 diating plates on which the spores are produced, had 

 changed in color from white to a kind of rusty-brown ap- 

 proaching snuff color. It was evident that the plant could 

 no longer be considered a Clitocybe nor any other member 

 of the genus Agaricus. Further investigation served to 

 locate it exactly midway between the two genera Lepista 

 of Smith and Paxillus of Fries. In the former the lamellae 

 are distinct and the spores are white, in the latter the 

 lamellae anastomose near the base and the spores are co- 

 lored. In our plant the lamellae are distinct but the spores 

 are colored. Thus it admirably connects the two genera 

 and serves to support and confirm the opinion of the vene- 

 rable Fries, the father of mycology, who had placed Lepista 

 as a subgenus under Paxillus. The union, so neatly accom- 

 plished by this intervening species, is the more interesting be- 

 cause the genus Paxillus is connected by Lepista with the ge- 

 nus Agaricus and on the other hand by intervening forms 

 with the genus Boletus. Thus we have a complete series of 

 transitional forms uniting the extreme genera Agaricus 

 and Boletus. Thus it is that new discoveries serve to fill 

 up gaps in the system and bring us nearer to truth 

 and to a realization of that harmony and unity of design 

 that pervades all of Nature's works. 



It is not uncommon in spring and early summer to find 

 upon the branches of the shrub usually called pinxter flower, 

 Azalea nudiflora, fleshy, succulent excrescences or gall-like 

 bodies of a somewhat globular, though frequently irregu- 

 lar form. They are of a pale green color, smooth, of a 

 uniform texture throughout and generally one or two 



