374 THE AGARICACEAE OF MICHIGAN 



thick at apex, bulb 2 to 3 times as thick, watery-spongy within, at 

 first purplish, soon chocolate-brown, sometimes subscaly, sometimes 

 fibrillose, annulate above by a definite band-like collar. CORTINA 

 pallid to brownish, closely woven. SPORES 6.5-8.5 x 6-6.5 inicr., 

 broadly elliptical to subsphoeroid, distinctly rough, dark rusty- 

 brown iu mass. BASIDIA 33 x 6 micr., 4-spored. ODOR somewhat 

 spicy when fresh becoming strong on drying. TASTE at first mild. 



Gregarious, sometimes in troops. On the ground, in low, moist, 

 frondose woods or swamps of maple, beech, etc. Detroit, Ann 

 Arbor. August-September. Infrequent. 



Easily known by its entirely chocolate color when mature, the 

 ventricose, pointed bulb and the band-like annulus. It absorbs 

 water in rainy weather and becomes watery-spongy, but on drying 

 out it takes on a tough consistency. It can scarcely be confused 

 with any other species. Sterile outgrowths border the edge of the 

 gills so that they appear flocculose. 



367. Cortinarius erraticus Pk. 

 X. Y. State Mus. Rep. 42, 1889. 



"PILEUS 5-7.5 cm. broad, firm, subcampanulate or convex, ob- 

 tuse, dry, silky or obscurely scaly with innate fibrils, canescent, 

 often becoming grayish-tawny. FLESH dingy white. GILLS ad- 

 nexed, subdistant, pale tawny, becoming darker with age. STEM 

 5-10 cm. long, 6-12 mm. thick, firm, solid, thickened toward the base, 

 white and tomentose below, violaceous above. UNIVERSAL VEIL 

 ■violaceous, often forming an imperfect annulus and sometimes re- 

 maining in fragments or floccose scales on the margin of the pileus." 

 SPORES elliptical, scarcely rough, 7.5-10 x 5-6 micr. 



On the ground in groves of balsam. New York. September. 



A study of the type-specimens showed that it has a universal 

 veil, and that the spores average larger than the size given by Peck. 

 The color of the gills when young is not certain. It would be a 

 rather unusual relation to find the apex of the stem violaceous while 

 the young -ills are "pale tawny." For this reason, I have included 

 it under the present section, where it probably belongs. 



