News, Notes and Reviews 
151 
He began the study of fungi at a time when few American 
botanists had devoted attention to this group of plants, his first 
descriptions of new species appearing in the Bulletin of the 
Torrey Botanical Club for October, 1873, before the publication 
of the earliest mycological papers of Burrill, Ellis, Farlow, or 
Morgan. In the following year, he was one of the founders of 
the Poughkeepsie Society of Natural Science, in whose Pro- 
ceedings a number of his botanical papers were published. In 
1877, he removed to New York City, where he was an active 
member of the Torrey Botanical Club for some years. Before 
the death of William H. Leggett, the founder and editor of the 
Bulletin , Mr. Gerard was made assistant editor, and he followed 
him as editor, filling that office from April, 1882, to December, 
1885. In later years he was interested in the derivation of plant 
names, especially those of American Indian origin, and con- 
tributed papers on this subject to Garden and Forest in 1895 and 
1896. Otherwise, his botanical studies seem to have ended with 
the year 1885. 
Agaricus xylogenus Mont. 
Agaricus ( Psalliota ) xylogenus Mont. Sy 11. Crypt. 122. 1856 
was described as follows from plants said to have been collected 
by Sullivant on dead wood near Columbus, C bio, in August: 
“ Pileus conic to campanulate, umbonate, 3-6 cm. broad ; surface 
smooth, luteous, fuscous at length on the umbo, margin striate 
when dry; stipe white, 7 cm. long, 5 mm. thick, slightly larger at 
the base, hollow, with a persistent annulus below the middle; 
lamellae free, remote, rose-colored as in A. campestris; spores 
globose, 5-7.5 n, discolored-hyaline; related to Agaricus cepae- 
stipes.” 
Sullivant had two collections numbered 140. The plants de- 
scribed, which do not grow on wood, resemble a Lepiota, with 
long, slender stipe, brown umbo, and a good superior annulus, but 
no scales such as occur in L. procera. They are neither L. 
cepaestipes nor L. Morgani. The other No. 140, called 140 2 by 
Montagne, is totally different from the one described and is at- 
tached to dead wood, thereby deserving the specific name. The 
pileus is white, glabrous, apparently viscid, distinctly umbonate, 
