Agaricaceas 



Piuteus. arable into plates, very brittle, %, in. thick at stem, immediately thin- 

 ning to H in., very thin toward margin. Grills thin, elastic, rounded 

 behind, close to stem, free, 1 A in. wide, close, alternate short and long, 

 white, then tinged and spotted pink with spores which when cast in mass 

 are a pinkish-brown with slight lavender shade. Stem 5 in. long, %% 

 in. thick, subequal, spreading at top, white, silky-fibrillose, changing to 

 very light yellowish brown from center to base, exterior hard, skin thin, 

 tough, interior filled with continuous, cottony fibers, snow-white, brittle, 

 watery, slightly swollen at base. Taste pleasant. 



Mt. Gretna, Pa., July, 1898, on chestnut stump and in woods on 

 ground among leaves. Leaves adhere to base of stem which is pow- 

 dery-white. Mcllvaine. 



Cooked, it is as good as P. cervinus. 



Var, petasa'tus Fr. PileilS 3-4 in. across, flesh rather thick, campanu- 

 late then expanded, umbonate, grayish-white, very smooth, with a 

 viscid cuticle, at length striate to the middle. Gills free, % in. and 

 more broad, crowded, becoming dry, white then reddish. Stem 4-5 

 in. long, %% in. thick, rigid, very slightly and equally attenuated 

 from the base, whitish, fibrillosely striate, solid. 



On heaps of straw and dung, sawdust, etc. 



Color verging on bay when old. Stem and margin of gills at length 

 with a tawny tinge. Fries. 



Haddonfield, New Jersey, Bell's Mill, sawdust, 1890; Mt. Gretna, 

 Pa., August, 1898, among sawdust from ice-house. Caps 6 in. across. 

 Stem easily split, exterior hard, fibrillose, streaked, whitish, shining, 

 stuffed with cottony fibers. Spores dark pink. Mcllvaine. 



Equal to P. cervinus. 



P. umbro'silS Pers. shady, from its dark color. PileilS fleshy, at 

 first bell-shaped, then convex or expanded, roughly wrinkled and more 

 or less villose on the disk, fimbriate on the margin, blackish-brown. 

 Gills broad, somewhat ventricose, at first whitish, then flesh-colored, 

 blackish-brown and fringed or toothed on the edge. Stem solid, colored 

 like or paler than the pileus, fibrillose or villose-squamose. Spores 

 elliptical, 8x5/x,. 



Decaying woods and swamps, especially of pine, both in shaded and 

 open places. Not rare. Peck, 38th Rep. N. Y. State Bot. 



246 



