CONTROVERTED AGARICS. 
33 
potius Inocybes ”), therefore my inference is that it is safer to revert 
(at least pro tern.) to the name Agaricus hypoxanthus, Plow., and 
dissever it entirely from Ag. storea. 
One other question has been raised, and it is that which 
I do not at present see my way to accept, that this is a form 
of Agaricus lacrymabundus , Fr. I have not recognized the 
“ weeping gills,” and for the time being will pass it by as an 
“ open question.” 
I must be permitted to relieve my mind a little in reference to 
three or four closely similar forms to each other which have 
hitherto borne distinctive names, but which I am beginning to think 
do not deserve that honour. This group includes, as we know them, 
Agaricus (Nolanea) pisciodorus, Cesati (illustr., 378, Fig. A), Ag. 
(Nolanea) piceus , Raich (illustr., 379, Fig. A), Ag. (Naucoria) 
cucumis, Pers. (illustr., 452), and Ag. (Nolanea) nigripes , Trog 
(illustr., 1,170). 
It is noteworthy that all these four species are characterized as 
having a strong odour as of putrid fish or cucumber. Perhaps it may 
be assumed that the odour is the same, whatever it may be said 
to resemble. In the next place, three are referred to Nolanea and 
one to Naucoria. I am not disposed to place much reliance upon 
the presence of one in Naucoria as evidence. It is not easy to 
detect amber-coloured spores from salmon-coloured spores, and 
as all have apparently elliptical smooth spores of nearly the same 
size, at least in three out of four, the size and form of spores 
will not help us, and I doubt much whether the Ag. cucumis , 
with which we are acquainted, may not be as much Nolanea as 
Naucoria. At any rate, I should be quite prepared for such a 
revelation. Then, again, all of them have black, or nearly black, 
stems, not a common event with slender-stemmed Agarics. Say 
what we will, there is a suspiciously close alliance between all the 
species, and if we take the trouble to compare the respective diagnoses 
of all the four, we shall be no nearer the discovery of good marks 
of specific difference than by a comparison of the figures. If we 
strike out from all simultaneously the features in which they coin- 
cide, there will be very little left. 
A. nigripes , Trog. Fr. Hym. Eur., No. 752. 
Pileus submembranaceous, conic then campanulate, obtuse, 
without stride, covered with paler flocci, brown, stem fistulose, 
twisted, smooth, black ; gills nearly free, thin, ventricose, yellow 
flesh-colour. Smell as of putrid fish. Stem often bent, tough, four 
to five inches long. Pileus l^in. broad. In swamps. 
A. pisciodorus, Cesati. Fr. Hym. Eur., No. 753. 
Pileus submembranaceous, conic then campanulate then convex, 
obsoletely umbonate, velvety and soft, fulvous-cinnamon ; stem 
subfistulose, tough, delicately pruinate, chestnut turning blackish, 
paler at the apex, rather velvety ; gills slightly adnexed, gilvous then 
flesh- colour, at length fulvous. Odour similar to A. nigripes, but 
colour different. On chips and rotten leaves. Spores ovoid-oblong. 
