ON THE BIOLOGY OF COLLYBIA VELUTIPES. 147 
On the Biology of Agaricus velyfipes, Curt. (Collybia velutipes, 
P. Karst.). By R. H. Bırres, formerly Frank Smart Student 
of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. (Commuuicated 
by Prof. H. MarsHALU Warp, D.Sc., F.R.S., F.L.S.) 
[Read 1st December, 1898.) 
(Prates 2-4.) 
In the early part of the year an abundant crop of the sporophores 
of Agaricus (Collybia) velutipes * grew on a pile of old chestnut 
and poplar wood in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. It was 
also frequently met with on elm and willow trees in the neigh- 
bourhood. This early appearance of sporophores is unusual 
among the Agaricinee, and Collybia velutipes is one of the few 
forms which persist through the winter uninjured by the frost. 
It may even be found pushing its way through the suow t. The 
large conspicuous clumps of tawny yellow sporophores grow 
trom the base to some height up the tree-trunks. In the case of 
one elm, the greater part of which was dead, the sporophores 
were found growing at a height of forty feet above the base. 
The conspicuousness of this common fungus has led, as one 
might expect, to numerous descriptions of it, even among the older 
writers. Thus Curtis ł describes and figures it, under the name 
of Agaricus velutipes or the velvet-stemmed Agaricus, in the 
* Flora Londinensis,’ noting that “the sheath or egg (volva) and 
the ring or ruffle (velum partiale) are wanting." “Its velvety 
and sooty stalk, most conspicuous in those whieh are advanced, 
serves as a distinguishing characteristic from other Agarieine®.” 
Sowerby $ again describes and figures it, and calls attention to 
the extraordinary length of the stipes in specimens growing iu a 
shed, and to “the pollen or white dust which lay on the upper 
* Agaricus velutipes is the original name used by Curtis for the fungus 
described by Dillenius in Ray's ' Synopsis Stirpium Britannicarum,’ ed. 3, p. 9, 
n. Ol, 
Other synonyms :—-A. mutabilis, Huds, Flor. Angl. p. 215; A. nigripes, Bull. 
Champign. tab. 344; A. Aesculi, Schum. Enumerat. ii. p. 906 ; A. austriacus, 
Trattin. Fung. Austr. taf. 7, I have used Karsten's name throughout this paper. 
t Winter, Rab. Krypt.-Flor., Bd. i. p. 779. 
f Curtis, Flor. Lond. vol. ii. pl. 213, 1798. 
$ Sowerby, English Fungi, vol. iii, pl. 203. 
LINN. JOURN.—BOTANY, VOL. XXXIV. M 
