Agaricacese 



CLITOPI'LUS Fr. 



Gr. a declivity ; Gr. a cap. 



(Plate LXIV.) 



CLITOPILUS PRUNULUS. 

 One-third natural size. 



cntopiius. Pileus more or less excentric or regular, margin at first involute. 



Gills more or less decurrent, never 

 sinuate nor seceding from the stem, 

 salmon-color. Stem fleshy or fibrous, 

 not polished and cartilaginous exter- 

 nally, central, expanded upward into 

 the flesh of the pileus. Spores 

 smooth or warted. 



Closely resembling Eccilia, differ- 

 ing mostly in the stem not being 

 cartilaginous at the surface. Distin- 

 guished from Entoloma by the gills 

 not being sinuate. 



Agrees in structure with Clitocybe 

 in the Leucosporae. Massee. 



Growing on the ground, often strong smelling. Caps usually de- 

 pressed or umbilicate and waved on margin. 



Some of the best of edible kinds are within this genus ; a few are un- 

 pleasant raw, none poisonous. 



Most authors follow Fries in the arrangement of the species, dividing 

 them into two groups, the Orcelli, distinguished by deeply decurrent 

 gills and an irregular, scarcely hygrophanous pileus, with the margin at 

 first flocculose; and Sericelli, distinguished by adnate or slightly de- 

 current gills and a regular silky or hygrophanous-silky pileus with a 

 naked margin. This arrangement is not strictly applicable to some of 

 our species. C. abortivus, C. erythrosporus and C. Noveaboracensis 

 have the gills deeply decurrent in some individuals, adnate or slightly 

 decurrent in others, and therefore the same species might be sought in 

 both groups. For this reason the primary grouping of our species has 

 been made to depend upon the variation in the spore colors. By far 

 the greater number of our species appear to be peculiar to this country, 

 only two of them occurring also in Europe. 



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