Massbe. — 0)1 the Fungus Flora of Neio Zealand. 337 



Agreeing with the geuus CoUybia ia general habit and 

 structure of the stem, but retained in Tricholoma. on account 

 of its evident affinity with such species as Tricholoma 

 pcRoniuyn and T. ionides. 



28. Armillaria, Fries. 

 Pileus regular, fleshy; gills adnate or sometimes slightly 

 decurrent ; stem central, furnished with a ring ; spores 

 white. 



Armillaria, Fries, Syst. Myc, i., p. 26 (as a subgenus 

 of Agaricus). 



All white-spored x\garics with gills touching the stem, and 

 a ring or annulus on the stem, belong to the present genus. 

 Lepiota differs in having the gills free from the stem. On 

 branches or on the ground, round decaying stumps. 



105. Armillaria mellea, Vahl, Flor. Dan., t. 1013; Austr. 



Fung., p. 11; Sacc, Syll. v., no. 289. 



Pileus 5-12 cm. across, disc fleshy, remainder thin, convex 

 then expanded, often becoming more or less depressed at the 

 centre, often sooty or covered with olive down when young, 

 soon paler ; usually ochraceous with a tinge of honey-colour, 

 sprinkled all over with small spreading blackish-brown scales, 

 margin striate ; gills adnate, then becoming more or less 

 decurrent, rather distant, white with a pink tinge, then 

 brownish and powdered with the white spores ; stem 6-12 cm. 

 long, 1-1-5 cm. thick, rigid, more or less grooved, dingy- 

 ochraceous, floccose or almost naked below the ring, base 

 often covered with yellowish down, stuffed, then hollow, 

 elastic, ring near the apex ; spores elliptical, 9 x 5-6 |U,. 



At the base of trunks or on the ground, springing from 

 buried wood. Maungaroa, New Zealand. Europe, North 

 America, South America, Australia, India. 



Usually densely tufted, although sometimes solitary, and 

 then usually larger ; very variable ; stem and pileus often 

 quite glabrous, especially when old. A very destructive 

 parasite to timber trees in Europe, the black cord-like strands 

 of mycelium running between the wood and the bark, also 

 travelling in the ground from one tree to another. These 

 strands of mycelium were at one time considered as consti- 

 tuting a distinct genus of Fungi called Bhizomorpha. 



29. Lepiota, Fries. 



Pileus regular, usually scaly ; gills free from the stem, white 

 or tinted ; stem central, bearing a ring ; spores white or 

 dingy. 

 Lepiota, Fries, Syst. Myc, i., p. 19 (as a subgenus of 



Agaricus) . 

 22 



