NOTES ON HYMENOMYCETES. 
85 
little consequence in the opinion of some persons, though fortu- 
nately not yet the majority. 
This leads us to inquire what are the features upon which some, 
at least, of the new and “ shining lights ” in mycology base the 
determination of species. Certainly they have wandered from the 
Friesian method most considerably. With an atlas before us, 
illustrative of the new method, containing some hundreds of 
coloured figures, we fail to discover the secret. It cannot be 
colour , for in the matter of colour there is but little variety, and 
coloured stems, according to description, are colourless in the 
figures. This is very provoking in Cortinarius , for example, 
wherein there formerly was held to be some virtue in a coloured 
stem. And, again, sections are, as a rule, all white, but our crude 
experience of Agaricini tends to the conclusion that the flesh of all 
the species is not uniformly white and immutable. But if not 
colour, can it be form or general contour ? And, again, we dis- 
cover that form is of little avail, since one after another in the 
diagnosis of new species there is but vague indication of form, and 
this is not always in agreement with the type figure. 
Let us take a species at random, and opening at Cortinarius 
insignis , Britz., we find it thus described : — “ Pileus campanulate, 
lilac flesh colour, stem of the same colour, gills sufficiently numer- 
ous, lilac, reddish yellow, flesh whitish, pallid violet, spores 8-9 x 
6 fi.” In addition to this masterpiece of brevity we are referred 
to Fig. 144, and told that the size is “ Pileus 7 cm. diam., stem 6 
cm. long, If cm. thick.” Turning to the figure we find a small 
species delineated, which is wholly white, with a pileus 1 cm. 
broad, a stem 2 cm. long and about 4 mm. thick, and yet all the 
figures are supposed to be “ natural size.” We would inquire — 
How can anyone identify such a new species ? The pileus is cam- 
panulate, but white according to the figure ; the stem is thickened 
downwards and of the same colour. And as to the gills, of course 
they are of no consequence ; the diagnosis does not hint whether 
they are adnate, decurrent, sinuate, emarginate, or free, and whether 
the stem is stuffed, hollow, or solid is left an open question. There 
is but one definite clue to the species, “ spores 8-9 x 6 n” and this 
is evidently the crucial test. Here beams a light upon the royal 
road to success in the determination of Agaricini, as preached by 
the new apostles. The size of the spore is to determine the 
species, free from all the trammels of external character. This is 
the plain inference to be derived from more than one of the latest 
adventurers in the career of species making. This is carrying to 
the extremity of abuse the carpological system, which, though 
applied by Saccardo himself in his fifth volume with reason, 
moderation, and good sense, he would blush to own when united to 
such extravagance. 
If spore measurement is to be the “ Alpha and Omega ” in the 
determination of the Agaricini , we should at least be certain that 
authentic specimens only of the older species (for which spore 
8 
