INTRODUCTION. 
There are hundreds of botanists in the United States going over the 
same old ground year after year, flowering plants, when a practically unex¬ 
plored field lies at their very doors. The study of the larger fungi, 
especially Agarics, is suffering for want of careful workers, and to-day, ex¬ 
cept in a limited field covered by Prof. Peck in the East, is practically un- 
worked in this country. The chief difficulty is in a lack of literature. 
Little has been published on the Agarics of this country, save the numerous 
new species described by Prof. Peck and others, and these descriptions 
are so scattered through various publications that they are not available 
for the ordinary workers. Agarics should be studied by contrast and 
comparison, not each one as an isolated fact. We have several local 
lists, such as Johnson of Minnesota, Harkness of California, but they are 
for the most unreliable, and it were better for the science had they never 
been issued. It is to make a start to supply the literature needed that this 
pamphlet is compiled. It contains a synopsis of all the European species 
of Volvse reported from this country (a number no doubt errors) and all the 
“new species” described from this country. Many of the “new species” 
are based on colored plates or dried specimens sent to Europe and we opine 
that reliable work can not be done with such material. Agarics must be 
studied fresh and in the woods where grown, and it will be many years be¬ 
fore the errors of our “dried specimen” descriptions of “new species” are 
eliminated. It is a fortunate circumstance to help the beginner in the study 
of our Agarics that the most of them are European species, and further that 
Europe has had a Genius , Elias Fries, who mastered the agarics of Europe 
and left us the result of his work in a completed form. (Epicriseos Systematis 
Mycologici, 1874.) We advise every one who wishes to take up the study 
to obtain first a copy of Stevenson’s British Fungi, (2 vols., 1886,) the best 
work ever issued in English, and next (if possible) a copy of Fries’ work 
mentioned before. Stevenson’s work is largely based on Fries and the 
American worker can with Stevenson alone, determine a large number of 
the Agarics he may meet. You will find many difficulties in your path, 
but you are needed in the work, and if a number of botanists in different 
sections will undertake to make a careful study of their local mycological 
flora, not contenting themselves to be mere collectors of dried specimens, but 
students in the woods making notes, descriptions, comparisons, contrasts, 
of the Agarics they meet, from their observations on the gro7oing plants, it 
will not be many years until we can have a systematic American work of 
value on the subject. 
C. G. LLOYD. 
