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THE AGARICACEAE OF MICHIGAN 



PILEUS 5-12 cm. broad, convex-expanded to plane, obtuse, gla- 

 brous, moist or water-soaked, variable in color, grayish to brownish, 

 tinged with lilac, lavender or purplish hues, fading in age to pale 

 livid or sordid-white, even, margin at first involute and villose- 

 pruinose, at length spreading, naked and undulate. FLESH laven- 

 der-tinged when fresh, fading to whitish, often water-soaked in wet 

 weather. GILLS slightly truncate-adnate to almost free, rather 

 broad, crowded, at first blue, then lavender, grayish-rufescent, etc., 

 separable from pileus, edge entire. STEM 3-7 cm. long, 1-2 cm. 

 thick, rather short, stout, at first bulbous, becoming clavate or 

 tapering upwards or sometimes equal, solid, at first blue then per- 

 sistently lavender or lilac, sometimes fading to pale livid, etc., 

 frosted by minute, furfuraceous-squamulcs, glabrescent, pale gray- 

 ish within. SPORES narrowly elliptical, smooth, non-nucleate, 7-8 

 x4-5 micr. (rarely longer), pale flesh color in mass. CYSTIDIA 

 and sterile cells none. BASIDIA 28-30x6-7 micr., 2-4-spored. 

 ODOR and TASTE mild. 



Gregarious or subcaespitose. On the ground among decaying 

 leaves or brush piles, in mixed or frondose, open or thin woods. 

 Throughout the State. September-November. (Earliest record 

 August 25.) Common. 



This is a favorite for the table. It is easily known among the 

 large Tricholomas by its bluish or lavender colors when fresh, and 

 in this respect imitates some of the Cortinarii, but such confusion 

 will not lead to trouble, as the latter are equally safe. Cortinarius 

 michiganensis and Cortinarius albatus have similar colors, but are 

 distinguished by the cortina when young, and the darker gills when 

 old. It is not easily confused with Cortinarius violaceous, as some 

 have stated, since that species is long-stemmed, has a much darker 

 color and the cap is minutely scaly. T. nudum is a more slender 

 plant, and differs mainly in its deeper blue or purplish colors on 

 cap and stem, and the naked margin when young. All are edible. 

 Our plant loves to grow among heavy masses of fallen or decaying 

 leaves which often completely hide it in the late autumn. It varies 

 in color, so that several varieties have been named; these varieties 

 are mostly the result of weather conditions, of habitat or of late 

 growth. After having been soaked by rains it is less palatable. The 

 color of the spores shows it to be intermediate between Tricholoma 

 ii nd Entoloma, and induced W. G. Smith and others to call it 

 Lepista personata. 



