142 STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI. 



The pileus is globose when young, then bell-shaped, and finally 

 more or less expanded, and umbonate, smooth, very viscid, so that 

 earth, leaves, etc., cling to it. The flesh is white and very soft. 

 The gills are free, flesh colored to reddish or fulvous, from the deeply 

 colored spores. The spores are broadly elliptical, or oval, 12-18 x 

 8-10 yu. The stem is nearly cylindrical, or tapering evenly from the 

 base, when young more or less hairy, becoming smooth. The volva 

 is large, edge free, but fitting very close, flabby and irregularly torn. 



The species is reported from California by McClatchie, and from 

 Wisconsin by Bundy. 



Specimens were received in June, 1898, from Dr. Post of Lansing, 

 Mich, which were collected there in a potato patch. It was abundant 

 during May and June. Plants which were sent in a fresh condition 

 were badly decayed by the time they reached Ithaca, and the odor 

 was very disagreeable. It is remarkable that the odor was that of 

 rotting potatoes ! In this connection might be mentioned Dr. Peck's 

 observation (Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 26: p. 67, 1899) that Agaricus 

 maritimus Pk., which grows near the seashore, possessed " a taste 

 and odor suggestive of the sea." 



McClatchie reports that it is common in cultivated soil, especially 

 grain fields and along roads, and that it is " a fine edible agaric and 

 our most abundant one in California." 



CLITOPILUS Fr. 



In the rosy-spored agarics belonging to this genus the gills are 

 decurrent, that is, extend for some distance down on the stem. The 

 stem is fleshy. The gills are white at first and become pink or sal- 

 mon color as the plants mature, and the spores take on their charac- 

 teristic color. The plants should thus not be confused with any of 

 the species of Agaricus to which the common mushroom belongs, 

 since in those species the gills become dark brown or blackish when 

 mature. The genus corresponds with Clitocybe among the white- 

 spored ones. 



Clitopilus prunulus Scop. Edible. This species grows on the ground 

 in the woods from mid-summer to autumn. It is not very common, 

 but sometimes appears in considerable quantities at one place. 

 During the autumn of 1898 quite a large number of specimens were 

 found in a woods near Ithaca, growing on the ground around an old 

 stump. The plants are 3-8 cm. high, the cap 5-10 cm. broad, and 

 stem 1-2 cm. in thickness. 



The pileus is fleshy, firm, convex and becoming nearly plane, and 

 sometimes as the plants become old the center may be slightly de- 



