CLASSIFICATION OP AGARICS 719 



8UBGENI 8 CLITOCYBE (propria). Spores elliptical to orate, 

 when spherical qo1 Bpinulose (see C. pulcherrium) . 



Section /. Paxilloideae. Pileus firm; flesh thickish, not bygro 

 phanous. (Jills separable from trama <»t' pileus, more or less anas 

 tomosins on the Btem. Plants in«*«l inm to very large. 



O' 



755. Clitocybe gigantea FY. (EDIBLE 

 Sys. .Mv. ■(»!.. L821. 



Illustrations: Gillet, Champignons de Prance, PL LOO. 

 Cooke, 111.. PL L06. 



PILEUS large, L5-25 cm. broad, relatively thin, soon expanded, 

 plane then infundibuliform, soft, glabrous, white or tinged tan, 

 slightly flocculose when dry, margin involute, then spreading, at 



length coarsely sulcatc. Flesh thin, white. (JILLS subdecurrent, 

 very crowded, rather broad, (2-3 times thickness of pileus), some 

 forked, anastomosing on the stem. STEM short and stout, 2-6 cm. 

 long, 2-3 cm. thick, solid, glabrous, even, whitish. SPORES 5x3 

 micr., elliptical, apiculate, white. ODOE and TASTE mild. 



i Dried : T ileus rufous-brown in patches, dingy whitish elsewhere. 

 (Jills cinnamon brown, i 



Caespitose. Ground, in rich woo. is of maple, oak. bassw I. etc. 



Ann Arbor. September-October. Infrequent Edible. 



Certain remarks found in fungi hooks indicate thai this Bpecies 



i Is further study in its relation to C. maxima and C. Candida. 



Massee Bays the gills are not separable from the hymenophore, al- 

 though Pries docs not mention the matter in Hymen. Europ., Mid- 

 crisis and Systema. The lengthy quotations of Mcllvaine do nol 

 meet tlic difficulties in deciding between the three mentioned. This 

 i- one of our Largesl fungi, often a toot across the cap, and a caespi- 

 tose cluster of them is a marked feature of the forest. It differs, 

 according to our diagnosis, from C. maxima by the anastomosing 

 <;ills. the sulcate-ridged margin of the pileus, lack of any umbo 

 and smooth stem; and from C. Candida in the character of the gills 

 ami the Bulcate margin of the pileus. Large fresh clusters of 

 Tricholoma panoeolum rar. caespitosum have all the appearance 

 id' this plant, hut in that species the gills turn slowly flesh color 

 ami the Bpores are smaller. The illustrations of C. gigantea tail to 

 show its size ami caespitose character. 



