31 g THE AGARICACEAE OF MICHIGAN 



I iodioides, C. elegantoides, C. infractus and G. ochroleucus the sur- 

 face of the pileus or of its flesh has a distinctly bitter taste; a few 

 others are sometimes slightly bitterish. Most Cortinarii have a 

 mild or merely fungoid taste. The European G. damascenus is said 

 t0 Q ave an acrid taste. The ODOR is occasionally like that of 

 radish when the plant is crushed, e. g\, G. annulatus, G. armillatus, 

 C. evernius, G. intrusus, etc., but in the majority of species no 

 special odor is noticeable. 



The HAT. I TAT is mostly the forest floor where the rich humus 

 soil is abundant and moist. Like many other species of Agarics 

 they thrive best on a substratum capable of retaining moisture, i. 

 ... a forest with either a clay subsoil, or with dense masses of 

 humus, mosses or fallen leaves. In forests of pine, hemlock and 

 spruce, in ravines of beech, oak and maple, where the moisture is 

 persistent or the hillside springy, one usually finds them abundant- 

 ly. Many of them have a tendency to form mycorhiza on the roots 

 of forest trees; in Michigan I have found G. rubipes, and G. ele- 

 garitior var. to be thus associated with living roots. They often 

 occur in troops of closely aggregated individuals, sometimes in 

 arcs, pushing up the leaves in late fall like windrows; especially 

 is this true of some of the subgenus Bulbopodium, like G. glaucopus 

 and ('. aggregatus. Others occur in tufts of several individuals or 

 arc scattered here and there in limited areas, while not a few are 

 found solitary, (specially in dry weather. The subgenera Telomonia 

 and I lydiocybe are much more frequent in northern conifer forests, 

 Phlegmacium and Bulbopodium in frqndose woods farther south. 



The following key and text of this genus includes not only Michi- 

 gan species, but all the Cortinarii of the northeastern portion of 

 the United States which have been described or which I have seen. 

 Since I have made a more extended study of this genus than of 

 any other, and since Dr. Peck has not monographed this group, it 

 seemed advisable to do this with the material now at hand. Dr. 

 Peck's type specimens have been carefully examined, and during 

 several week's stay in Sweden, near Stockholm, some fifty species 

 of Cortinarii were collected and studied, most of which were 

 recognizable as Friesian species. In addition a thorough study 

 was made of Fries' unpublished plates, — most excellent figures in 

 color which are deposited in the Royal Museum at Stockholm; 

 these plates illustrate practically all the species described by Fries 

 in Ilia M< graph of Cortinarius and his other works. I have, there- 

 fore, included L52 species, 90 of which I have collected in Michigan, 

 and in the latter case the description is always made from Michi- 



