Full descriptions and country distribution maps for Nordic area (including UK). Dichotomous keys to fresh material using macroscopical characters, and dried material using the microscope. Boertmann makes Hygrocybe identifiable by taking a broad species concept and synonymising a number of species where the differences were unworkable.

Indispensible in its day.

P12 Fig 1 should be ignored. It is a repeat of Fig 10 on the page opposite.

P33: Key G, couplet 13: the numbers have been interchanged. The first alternative should lead to 15 and the second to 14.

The sporograms seem to represent the range of shapes for a species rather than a sample of average spores, so the spores in a given prep will look much more homogeneous.

Boertmann’s monograph recognised 48 spp and 10 varieties. This simplified Orton’s key in the 1960 checklist Part III, which recognised 64 spp. Boertmann’s broad species concept united several similar fungi around H. acutoconica, and to a lesser extent, around H. virginea, H. conica and H. psittacina. These were difficult taxa to distinguish, often separated on spore size, and this made identification much easier.

In 2013 DNA work (Ainsworth et al) showed that colour variants of H. psittacina should be recognised as 3 or 4 separate species. Further work will likely show that H. acutoconica and H. conica also represent species groups.