40 



Prof. Marshall Ward. Experiments on the [Feb. 16, 



typically wood-fungi, and nearly all of which, grow in open exposed 

 situations, on dung, &c. 



If I sum up the foregoing remarks about the genus Agaricus, it 

 amounts to this : There are nearly 800 British species described, and 

 of these 400 or so are white-spored, and nearly all grow in the shade 

 of woods, the remainder chiefly in the long grass of meadows, &c, 

 the remaining moiety, a little short of 400 more, have spores of 

 various colours (pink, yellow, brown, purplish, and black, &c), and 

 grow for the most part in places more exposed to the light. 



Generally speaking, the same seems to hold good for the other 

 genera of Agaricini. Coprinus has black spores, and grows in 

 exposed places on dung, and similarly with the rasty-spored Bolbitius. 

 LcLctarius, Bussula, and Gantharellus have white to yellowish spores, 

 and grow in woods. 



At the same time there are difficulties. The genus Cortinarius is 

 a large one, of about 130 species, with yellowish spores, and all, or 

 nearly all, grow in woods ; whereas Hygrophorus, a white-spored 

 genus, comprising a little over fifty species, has half of them growing 

 in " grassy places." It may be that a closer examination of the 

 habits and spores will help us to explain several points, and it is in- 

 teresting to note the following remark anent H. leporinus (Fr.), a 

 form growing on the downs : " The spores have a pale umber tint "* 

 and Stevenson says the same.f 



Again, summing up, the other genera of Agaricini number about 400 

 species, of which somewhat more than half are white-spored, and all 

 typically woodland forms, except about twenty-five species of Hygro- 

 pliorus : the other moiety have coloured spores, principally tawny, 

 and it is not easy to generalise about them, except that most grow in 

 the shade. 



I have been able to get very little information about the colour of 

 the spores in Polyporei, but in the genus Boletus there are about 

 forty species, the spores of which vary in colour considerably. Most 

 of them are shade forms, but at least five occur in the open : their 

 spores are ochre, yellow-brown, and green-brown. I can only find 

 one form with white, or rather sub-hyaline, spores — it grows in pine 

 woods. 



As regards Polyporus, the colour of the spores is rarely known. 

 P. ccesius is said to have pale blue spores it grows on dead firs. 

 Several have white spores — all wood species. 



Passing over a number of forms which need investigating in this 

 conuexion, we may glance at the genus Glavaria. Out of more than 

 forty species, I find fifteen with white spores, and these seem pretty 



* Cooke, loc. cit., vol. 1 , p. 198. 

 t Loc. cit., vol. 2, p. 78. 



X Stevenson, loc. cit., vol. 2, p. 198, quoting W. G-. S. as authority. 



