Genus Coprimes. 1 3 5 
species, and in their diagnoses have emphasized this, to the 
comparative exclusion of other characters. Unfortunately 
there appears to have been no common agreement as to what 
constituted a feature of primary importance, hence the 
difficulty, or often the impossibility, of gaining a clear idea 
of the sum-total of characters considered necessary for the 
discrimination of a species at the present day, from the very 
brief descriptions of the old authors, and unfortunately also 
of some quite modern ones. A glance at almost any page 
of Saccardo’s Sylloge Fungorum, which is supposed to give 
the original description of every described species of Fungus, 
will illustrate my meaning. It will there be seen that whilst 
the description of one species may not occupy more than two 
lines, that of the next species may occupy a dozen or more 
lines. Of these, the first would in all probability prove to 
lack points absolutely necessary for the certain identification 
of the intended species ; whereas the second, on the other 
hand, might possibly prove to be a detailed description of 
an individual , as difficult to interpret correctly as the shorter 
one. Difficulties of the nature indicated are by no means 
absent from the descriptions of species, formulated by so 
many different individuals, and at different periods, in the 
genus Coprinus. 
The following synopsis aims at keeping a certain number 
of features in view throughout the entire number of species, 
as follows: — (1) Form of pileus, especially when young; (2) 
presence or absence of volva and ring, and nature of universal 
veil when broken up by expansion of pileus ; (3) mode of 
attachment of gills ; (4) spores ; (5) stem-characters. Un- 
fortunately it is very rare to find all these features noticed 
in existing diagnoses, but in many instances I have been 
enabled to fill up omissions from examination of authentic 
or type specimens in the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, and also in some cases from type-specimens kindly lent 
from other collections. 
