Massee . — A Monograph of the genus Inocybe, Karsten. 46 1 
Not unfrequently the confusion alluded to is intensified by changing 
the specific name, on the ground that the one originally used was not 
classically correct. 
A law of their own formulating is the justification for this act. 
By such tactics the champions of scientific accuracy, and of justice to 
old authors, carefully eliminate not only the original specific name, but also 
that of the original author ; and why ? Solely for the purpose of posing as 
the founder of a species ; and in their anxiety to accomplish this object, 
scientific accuracy and justice to the old authors are alike forgotten. 
This method of procedure goes behind the rule, that the name following 
a species should be that of the person who first placed it in the right 
genus. 
I am daily expecting the advent of the person who will boldly contest 
the validity of all specific names conferred up to the present, on the ground 
that their characteristics are not defined in classical Latin. At all events 
his argument would possess the merit of being as logical as many of those 
used at present for a similar purpose. 
The genus Inocybe contains 112 distinct species, and as a preliminary 
to the preparation of this monograph, 417 specimens were examined 
microscopically for the purpose of obtaining camera drawings and measure- 
ments of the spores, cystidia, and basidia. These specimens included those 
contained in the Kew Herbarium, supplemented by types and authentic 
specimens kindly communicated by other mycologists. 
As a result of this detailed examination of the structure of the 
hymenium in the various species, the fact has become apparent that perhaps 
in no other genus included in the Agaricaceae are characters of specific 
value more distinctly marked, than those presented by the spores, cystidia 
and basidia in the genus Inocybe. 
For systematic purposes the spores may be divided into two primary 
groups : (1) epispore smooth ; (2) epispore rough, that is, furnished with 
projections of some kind. In the first group, the most general form I have 
called pip-shaped, on account of the resemblance to the pip or seed of an 
apple. A second type of smooth spore is that of a long, narrow ellipse 
with obtuse ends ; this is termed elliptico-cylindrical. This form of spore is 
in some species very slightly curved. In a third form, only known in one 
species — 7 . rhombospora , Massee, from India — the spores are distinctly 
rhomboidal in outline, and much compressed laterally (Fig. 4). In the 
second group the spores are either globose or irregularly oblong . In all 
there is a more or less pronounced apiculus , or narrowed end, corresponding 
to the point of attachment of the spore to the sterigma. The ornamenta- 
tion of the epispore is included under two heads : (1) Spinulose, when the 
epispore bears slender pointed spines. Up to the present this type of 
epispore ornamentation is confined to one species — 7 . Gaillardi . Gillet, 
