750 



THE AGARICACEAE OP MICHIGAN 



Mycena. In the majority of Collybias, however, the pileus is ex- 

 panded at maturity, but in Mycena the pileus usually remains 



campanulate. , . . 



The PILEUS is rarely brightly colored. The color may be brown 

 ashy, blackish, tan, yellowish, white, or shades of these colors. A 

 few have a viscid cap, and in one section the cap is hygrophanous; 

 it is glabrous except in G. longipes, and some of the Marasmioideae. 

 In several of the hygrophanous species the margin is striatulate 

 when moist The GILLS are submembranous and soft, and continu- 

 ous with the trama of the pileus. They are usually white, yellowish, 

 rufescent or ashy. In one species they are lilac. Some mycologists 

 have divided the sections by the difference in the width of the gills, 

 some species have quite broad gills, others narrow gills. The mode 

 of attachment separates the genus from Omphalia and Clitocybe, 

 since they are never decurrent. The STEM is primarily cartilagin- 

 ous, as in Mycena, Omphalia and many Marasmii. This character 

 is not always easily recognized, and in some large species like C. 

 platyphylla, the otherwise soft stem may mislead one. Further- 

 more, the stems of plants belonging to the fleshy-stemmed genera 

 may, on drying in the wind, become somewhat cartilaginous in 

 texture, so as to be mistaken for true cartilaginous forms. The 

 base of the stem is usually rooting, sometimes remarkably so, as 

 in G. radicata, and G. longipes. Some species have glabrous stems, 

 while one section is composed of species with hairy, floccose, or 

 pruinose stems. The presence of deep or at least evident striatums 

 running up and down the stem is used to set off another section. 

 A few small species form a small sclerotium from which the fruit- 

 body develops. 



No poisonous species of Collybia are known, although the smaller 

 species have probably never been tested. Many of the large species 

 are of good flavor and much sought. 



It is probable that some forty-five species occur within the State, 

 but so far only thirty-four have been identified. The species have 

 been grouped in various ways by different authors. In the main, 

 the Friesian arrangement is retained, although somewhat modified. 

 It seemed that relationships could be better shown by using the 

 color of the gills to divide the main sections, rather than divide the 

 whole genus into two main groups having white and cinereous 

 gills respectively as Fries had done. A new section has been estab- 

 lished to contain those species which approach the genus Maras- 

 mins. This is called the Marasmioideae and serves as a bridge to 

 that genus. The genus is therefore composed of the five sections: 



