142 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Collybia platyphylla Fr. 

 Broad gilled Collybia 



plate 49, Jig. 1-8 



Pileus thin, fragile, convex, innately fibrillose, grayish brown or black- 

 ish brown, flesh white ; lamellae broad, subdistant, commonly deeply emar- 

 ginate, adnexed, white ; stem stout, equal, fibrillose striate, stuffed or hollow, 

 white or pallid, sometimes with branching strands of white mycelium at the 

 base ; spores subglobose or broadly elliptic, .0003 to .0004 of an inch long, 

 .00024 to .0003 broad. 



The broad gilled collybia is a comparatively large species, with a stem 

 much thicker and more fleshy than is usual in this genus. The cap is very 

 broad but rather thin and fragile. It is at first somewhat conic or egg- 

 shaped but it soon expands, till it is convex or nearly flat, and occasionally 

 it becomes concave or saucer-shaped by the elevation of the margin. In 

 such cases the margin is often split. The surface is minutely marked by 

 closely pressed or innate fibrils. It varies in color from whitish to dark 

 brown, but it is commonly grayish brown. The center is sometimes darker 

 than the rest. The gills are broad and usually deeply excavated at the stem 

 end. They are often transversely striate and sometimes split transversely in 

 several places. They are white. The stem is stout and fleshy but with a 

 fibrillose and slightly tough or cartilaginous exterior. It is sometimes 

 stuffed, sometimes hollow. Its white color contrasts well with the grayish 

 brown of the cap. Its thick, fleshy character often misleads the inexperi- 

 enced mycologist to think the species belongs to the genus Tricholoma. 

 White branching strands of mycelium are sometimes found at the base of 

 the stem, and such forms, having a hollow stem, have been by some con- 

 sidered a distinct species and named Collybia repens, the creeping 

 collybia, but they appear to me to be a mere form of the broad gilled col- 

 lybia. Sometimes this species emits a faint but agreeable odor resembling 

 that of anise, but in decay the odor is very disagreeable and the plants 

 loathsome. Insects are fond of this mushroom, and it is not always easy to 

 find specimens free from their attacks. Their eggs are often found attached 

 to the surface of the cap, where they have been deposited by the parent 

 insect. 



