W. D. Hay, 5 groups: White; pink; brown; purple; black.

C. H. Peck, 5 groups: _Leucosporii_, white; _Hyporhodii_, salmon;
_Dermini_, rust; _Pratellae_, brown; _Coprinarii_, black.

Saccardo divides the Agaricini into four sections, according to the
color of their spores, as follows: Spores brown, purplish brown or
black, _Melanosporae_; spores ochraceous or rusty ochraceous,
_Ochrosporae_; spores rosy or pinkish, _Rhodosporae_; spores white,
whitish or pale yellow, _Leucosporae_.

Dr. M. C. Cooke, 5 groups: _Leucospori_, white or yellowish;
_Hyporhodii_, rosy or salmon color; _Dermini_, brown, sometimes
reddish or yellowish brown; _Pratellae_, purple, sometimes brownish
purple, dark purple, or dark brown; _Coprinarii_, black or nearly
so.

These shades are somewhat different from the colors of the mushrooms'
gills, so that, when it is of importance to determine exactly the color
of the spore in the identification of a species, we may without recourse
to the microscope cut off the stem of an adult plant on a level with the
gills and place the under surface of the cap upon a leaf of white paper
if a dark-spored species, and upon a sheet of black paper if the spores
are light. At the expiration of a few hours we will find, on lifting the
cap, a bed of the shed spores which will represent their exact shade.
These may be removed to a glass slide and their size and form determined
by means of the microscope.

In the present work Dr. M. C. Cooke's grouping of the spore series is
adopted.

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD "MUSHROOM."

Various opinions have been offered as to the derivation of the word
"mushroom." According to Hay, it probably had its origin in a
combination of the two Welsh words _maes_, a field, and _rhum_, a knob,
which by gradual corruption have become _mushroom_. Some writers on the
other hand regard it as a corruption of _mousseron_, a name specifically
applied by the French to those mushrooms which are found growing in
mossy places. But it seems to be of older usage than such a derivation
would imply, and therefore the first explanation seems the more likely
to be correct.

In England the term "mushroom" has been most commonly applied to the
"meadow mushroom," that being the one best known; but English-speaking
mycologists now apply it generically very much as the French do the term
"champignon," while the name "champignon" is restricted in Eng