Agarici Austro-Americani: I: Agaricus of Trinidad

Abstract

Several colleagues having sent to me material of Agaricus from different countries of South America, I am able to start a set of publications on the subject. The present paper concerns the island of Trinidad which was visited in the autumn of 1949 by my colleague and friend Dr. R. W. G. Dennis who has already published some valuable papers on the fungi of this country. I beg the reader to refer to the first of them (Dennis, 195 I) for general remarks concerning geography, climate and vegetation. I know but two papers bearing directly on the subject. The first by W. A. Murrill (1918) summarizes the knowledge of his time on the Agaricaceae of Tropical America; 16 species of Agaricus are recorded, 13 of which are new. Unfortunately, as with most old descriptions, they are generally not sufficiently detailed for a later recognition of the species. Later on the types of Murrill's species were examined by A. H. Smith (1940) who gave valuable sketches of their spores and occasionally was able to add some anatomical details.