AGAR1CALES 



123 



The group VELATAE includes those species in which there is a 

 veil in the young stage, which does not remain as an annulus. In 

 some genera the veil separates entirely from the stem and remains 

 attached to the margin of the pileus like a fringe ; in others the 

 veil is like a spider's web and becomes evanescent as the pileus 

 expands. Hypholoma is a common example of the first and Cor- 

 tinarius of the second. 



Hypholoma has purplish brown spores and includes a number of 

 species representing two very different types. * Of one type H. 

 incertum is a common example, with a thin, light-colored pileus, 

 often growing gregariously in lawns. A second group includes 

 mushrooms known as brick-tops, -j- which grow until late in the 

 season in immense clusters about the bases of old stumps. One 

 of these with a bitter taste, H. sublateritiiim, is reputed poisonous, 

 while H. perplexum, with no unpleasant taste, is regarded as 

 edible. 



Cortinarius, with arachnoid evanescent veil and rusty brown 

 spores, is one of our largest and most difficult genera. \ Many of 

 the species appear only late in the season. In studying the spe- 

 cies the color of the young plant compared with the old, the 

 viscidity, hygrophaneity, or dryness of the pileus, the taste, and 

 the markings left on the stem by the retreating veil should all be 

 carefully noted. Probably many of the species are edible, and 

 none are reputed poisonous. Among the edible species are : 



C. violaceus with a dry dark-violet pileus, two to four inches wide, 

 marked with persistent hairy scales, and a bulbous solid stem three 

 to five inches long. 



C. cinnamomeus has a dry fibrillose yellowish or cinnamon- 

 brown pileus, with a slender stuffed or hollow stem, one to three 



Ohio. Hennings, /. c. , joins this genus with the last and gives the combi- 

 nation the name Psalliota. 



* Eighteen species of Hypholoma are reported from America. Morgan 

 (Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist. 6 : 113-115), describes the seven specise 

 occurring in Ohio 



| Peck (Reg. Rep. 49 : 6l, 62) gives a synopsis of the six allied species. 



\ Some sixty species have been reported from this country, but no consid- 

 erable number of them has ever been described in a single English pub- 

 lication. Peck (Reg. Rep. 23 : 105-112) describes twenty-one New 

 York species. 



