CLASSIFICATION' OF AGARICS :;I7 



ing on the stem. SPORES narrowly elliptical, 78 x II..") micr. 

 ODOR and TASTE mild. 



Caespitose, often in troops Forming arcs of scores of individuals. 

 in frondose woods of oak, maple, etc., in the late tall after heavy 

 rains, half hidden by the leaves. 



September-November. Ann Arbor. I nfreipient , in very wet sen- 

 sons. 



This species is usually quite abundant in its particular woods. 



As the clusters or closely crowded rows of the fruil bodies develop, 



they push Up the thick mat of Leaves in humps, an appearance which 

 is very commonly produced in frondose woods by the late-growing 

 mushrooms. The young clusters may be so thoroughly hidden by 

 the leaves that they are usually not found till more or less expanded 

 and the changes in color by that time are often extremely confut- 

 ing. In that case the deep bluish-purple color of the young cap is 

 lost and in the expanded state its surface assumes a distinct olive- 

 grav color and is then often markedly streaked with darker shades. 

 The bulb becomes soft, is often infested by grubs and stained yel- 

 lowish. It differs from C. purpurascens in habit, in different shade 

 of blue on the cap and stem, in the flesh not changing to darker 

 purple when bruised and in the smaller spores. A vigorous cluster 

 of young plants are intensely colored, and often silvery as if cover- 

 ed with hoar-frost. It is related to G. cyanopus Pr. 



330. Cortinarius sphaerosperma sp. now i Kdible) 

 Illustration: Plate LXX of this Report. 



PILEXJS 8-10 cm. broad, large, broadly convex expa tided, with a 



very viscid, separable pellicle, glabrous, even, deep molet-purple, 

 micaceous-shining when dry. FLESH soon whitish, changing to 

 purple when bruised, thick-, compact. GILLS adnate then sinuate- 

 subdecurrent, crowded, not broad, purple at first, then rusty umber. 



STEM 6-9 cm. long, lni'll mm. thick, solid, stout, dry, hung with 

 the dense, spore-stained fibrils of a very copious, purplish CORTINA, 

 deep purple like the cap, the ratlin- small bulb 8ubemarginate and 

 disappearing, at length clavate bulbous, whitish within, becoming 

 purple when bruised. SPORES spherical <»r subsphoeroid, very 

 tuberculate-rough, 7-8.5x6-7.5 micr., dark ferruginous in mass. 

 BASIDIA 30x9 micr.. L-spored, the slender sterigmata •'• I micr. 

 long. ODOR slightly of radish. TASTE mild. 



Solitarv or scattered. < >n the ground in frondose wood- of oak, 



