ALBERT

Description: This brief guide has been prepared during a stay in Malaysia as an aid to local collectors and turned out to fulfil a need. A wider public may find it of use as well. The writer gratefully acknowledges improvements by Dr. C. Bas, Leiden. (Ed.) As agarics and boleti belong to the most common, but also to the most difficult fungi to collect and preserve, this guide is written particularly for this group of macromycetes. Obviously many recommendations and indications will apply to other fungi with fleshy fruit-bodies as well. Macromycetes with nonfleshy fruit-bodies can be treated in the same way, but for identification afterwards extensive descriptive notes are usually not necessary.

Description: Everybody visiting the Cibodas Mountain Garden must have observed that on the North side of Mt. Pangerango there are roughly between 2300 and 2700 m several sizeable pale green patches visible in the dark green montane forest. They were never visited and it intrigued me to know their vegetation which clearly must differ from the surrounding forest. End May 1950 a rintis was made from Kandangbadak at the base of the Pangerango proper westwards to a large northern spur of Mt. Pangerango, the so-called Geger Prut, over which one can descend to Cibeureum from where the trail to Cibodas can be resumed. The rintis was prepared by Mr. Verheul and Mr. Nurta, curators of the Cibodas Garden. This appeared to be quite an effort, as the rintis went up and down crossing many small ravines. Incidentally we found between the second and third ravine in a lighter place Berberis wallichiana and Anaphalis maxima, both then new for Mt. Gedeh, the latter a very rare species. At times we had to tunnel our way through very large stands of Gleichenia (paku andam), consisting of G. linearis, G. longissima and G. volubilis. These stands are characteristic for earthslides. After three hours having crossed eleven small ravines we reached a singular open sloping rocky plateau, which we called Tegal padas, from where we had a clear view on Cibodas and Rarahan; the altitude was ca. 2600 m. The dimensions of the tegal were estimated at 200—300 by 100—200 m. Soil was almost absent, the stony surface consisted of cemented irregular gravel. A tiny stream cut through it, of which the bottom was a solid dark glassy rock. The preliminary conclusion was that the structure was a lava stream overlain by lahar material. For about 50% the palish rocky surface was visible with a large number of ground lichens identified by Mr. Groenhart as belonging to Stereocaulon, one Baeomyces and two Lecidiaceae. The vegetation was sparse: there were no Gleichenias and no grasses. All woody plants were dwarfed: Rhododendron retusum, Gaultheria fragrantissima, G. nummularioides, Symplocos sp., Eurya sp., Vaccinium varingifolium. Of herbaceous plants I noted several species of Lycopodium (L. cernuum, L. clavatum, L. volubile), Dianella javanica, Nepenthes sp. Along the brook were some specimens of Myriactis nepalensis, Valeriana hardwickii, Thalictrum javanicum, Gahnia javanica and Astilbe indica, obviously descended by water dispersal. Specimens of Leptospermum flavescens flowered in 20 cm high dwarf shrubs.

Description: Fries (1821: 11) established Agaricus series Derminus tribus Inocybe, which was later elevated by him to generic rank (Fries, 1863: 346). Originally Fries based his circumscription of Inocybe solely on macroscopical characters; when it was raised to generic status Fries added that the spores of all Inocybe species were seemingly rough (’sporae scabrae videntur omnibus Inocybis communes’). Almost certainly this was not based on original observation, as Fries considered the use of the microscope unnecessary, but the result of an uncritical appraisal of observations by Berkeley (1860). The relevance of Fries’s statement regarding the typification of Inocybe is discussed on p. 29. Although the genus Inocybe is easily recognisable by macroscopical characters, judging from the fact that the generic concept has scarcely changed to the present day, the delimitation of species is considerably more difficult. The number of species increased continually from 1821 onwards. Massee (1904) published a world monograph of the genus but his work unfortunately lacks precision and it is moreover outdated. Important regional work on the genus has been carried out by Heim (1931) and Kühner (in Kühner & Romagnesi, 1953) in France; Alessio (1980) in Italy; Enderle & Stangl (1981) and Stangl & Enderle (1983) in Germany; Kauffman (1924), Stuntz (1947, 1954), and Grund & Stuntz (1968, 1970, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984) in North America; and Horak (1978, 1979, 1980, 1981) in Australia and Asia.