132 NOTES ON FUNGI, FORESTAL AND OTHERS.
flatter myself that I still hold the record. I often look back with
something of surprise as well as gratification, that I was able to
accomplish so much. However, it was done with great
difficulty, from which I should shrink in these latter days.
Nevertheless all human work is to a certain extent imperfect,
and I have never laid claim to absolute perfection in anything
that I have ever done, least of all in a work of so much difficulty
as that which I have alluded to. Now and then I am kindly
reminded by some one or other of my friends of a few of my
failures, and I suppose that they are rather surprised that I do
not accept their strictures with a more grateful heart. Moreover
I can say with confidence that I am better pleased at the vindica-
tion of truth than the gratification of my own vanity. I think
that my days of vanity are all spent, and I am ready to confess
my errors, as soon as I become convinced that they are errors.
Already I have admitted some in the past, and still one of the
most persistent of my critics has lately called on me to make
further confession, which I will proceed to do —as far as I can
consistent with what I believe to be the truth.
Of the species of Amanita I have nothing to say, except that I think A.
strobiliformis was present when the original of Pl. 8 was drawn, and that the
execution was faulty and the colour more so, hence the result was a
caricature.
As to Armillaria the plate called A. focalis, minor (pl. 245) can scarcely be
any form of focalis, but rather of A. causetta, from the scaly stem.
In Lepiota I think pl. 1180 fairly represents L. hispida but pl. 27 does not,
and may be referred to L. clypeolaria.
Concerning Tricholoma I have but few confessions to make, and of these
Ag. portentosus Fr. comes first, of which Fig. 54 is not a type, indeed I am dis-
posed to let it go as Collybia platyphylla, and not very good at that. It was
not a drawing of my own, and I never saw the specimens.
I think that T argvraceus, and its varieties, is entitled to rank as a species,
distinct from T. terreus.
The gills in pl. 49, Ag. murinaceus should certainly be grey, which is
omitted in the plate.
Pl. 167. Agaricus virgatus is a failure inasmuch as the strioe of the pileus
should have been of the faintest kind. This plate was spoiled in the printing,
and could not be remedied.
As to Agaricus sadleri, pl. 127, I have little to say, except that it had the
sanction of the Rev. M.J. Berkeley, and at the time I protested strongly that
it was only a peculiar condition of Hypholoma fasciculare, which view is now
accepted.