Clavis agaricinorum : an analytical key to the British Agaricini, with characters of the genera and subgenera / by Worthington G. Smith.

  • Smith, Worthington George, 1835-1917.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clavis agaricinorum : an analytical key to the British Agaricini, with characters of the genera and subgenera / by Worthington G. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the hymenophorum. See remarks under Tricliolonin, Lepktn, and Faxlllus. I. Leucospoki, Wldte-spored Agarics (Plate I.).—Without doubt the species bearing white spores are much higher in type than the plants produciug coloured spoi'es. Most of the former are firm, and many persistent, whilst as we approach the black-spored Agarics, through tlie pink, brown, and purple series, there is a greater tendency to deliquesce till we reach the small, ephemeral species of Copr'mi, whose entire lives endure but one hour, and whose whole structure may be destroyed by a breath. The spores of the Leucospori are mostly oval in shape, sometimes nearly round (in Pleiirotus they are usually elon- gated ovals), generally very regular in shape, but sometimes spinulose (showing an affinity to Rtmula and other genera). The spores vary in size ; the Leucospori producing the largest as well as the smallest known spores; as a rule they are small (and thus opposed to the black-spored groups, where, as a rule, they are large), generally white, but sometimes dingy, or with a suggestion of yellovv, showing an affinity to CuntJiarelliis, etc., or pink, and pointing to Lentinus. It is wortliy of note that no other Fungus is analogous with the species of the ringed section of Amanita; it stands quite alone in ^os- sessing a volva and ring. It is also remarkable that, as a rule, none of the Leucospori ^row on duno; or in rank places, whilst in the darker and black-spored groups tliese habitats are the rule. II. Hyporiiodii, Fink-spored Agarics (Plate II.).^—^There is not one quarter so many Agarics bearing pink or salmon-coloured as white spores. The size of tiie spores varies greatly. A few are very small, others equally large (see Plate II.), whilst the majority are remarkably irre- gular in shape, resembling the fragments of granite seeu in the roads. Some of the species are edible, as in CUtopiliis (analogous with the white-spored edible species of Clitocgbe), whilst others are poisonous, as in Entolouia, reminding us of such dangerous species of Tricho- loma as A. sulfureus, Bull, etc. In this section blank places for unrepresented subgenera become apparent. Were the study better prosecuted, and the Agarics from all the world known, most, if not all, these species would probably be filled in. The genus PliUeas occupies the only space unrepresented amongst the Leucospori, Plate I., but it is exceedingly probable that white-spored Agarics exist with gills perfectly free from the stem, and