OclirosporaB 



MYXA'CIUM. (Gr. mucus.) 



PlleilS Convex, obtUSe, Cortinarrjj 



C. COllin'itus Fr. collino, to besmear, 

 glabrous, glutinous when moist, shin- 

 ing when dry. Gills rather broad, 

 dingy-white or grayish when young. 

 Stem cylindrical, solid, viscid or glu- 

 tinous when moist, transversely crack- 

 ing when dry, whitish or paler than 

 the pileus. Spores subelliptical, 13- 



(Plate LXXXIII.) 



CORTINARIUS COLLINITUS. 



About natural size. 



The Smeared cortinarius is much 

 more common than the Violet cor- 

 tinarius and has a much wider range. 

 Both the cap and stem are covered 

 with a viscid substance or gluten 

 which makes it unpleasant to handle. 

 The cap varies in color from yellow 



to golden or tawny-yellow and when the gluten on it has dried it is 

 very smooth and shining. The flesh is white or whitish. The young 

 gills have a peculiar bluish-white or dingy-white color which might be 

 called grayish or clay color, but when mature they assume the color of 

 the spores. They are sometimes minutely uneven on the edge. 



The stem is straight, solid, cylindrical and usually paler than the cap. 

 When the gluten on it dries it cracks transversely, giving to the stem a 

 peculiar scaly appearance. 



The cap is i Is 3 in. broad, and the stem 24 in. long, and K % 

 in. thick. 



The plant grows in thin woods, copses and partly cleared lands and 

 may be found from August to September. 



It is well to peel the caps before cooking, since the gluten causes dirt 

 and rubbish to adhere tenaciously to them. Peck, 48th Rep. N. Y. 

 State Bot. 



In 4 ist Rep. N. Y. State Mus. Nat. Hist., p. 71, Professor Peck de- 

 scribes a closely allied species, C. muscigenus, n. sp., "separated by its 

 more highly-colored pileus, striate margin and even, not diffracted- 

 squamose stem." 



313 



