REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 47 



plexing, and a transference of some of the species to this genus may yet 

 be found necessary. 



The pileus is usually glabrous. It is viscid in but few of our species 

 and still more rarely is it squamose. It is hygrophanous in numerous 

 instances and often in the moist plant the thin margin of the pileus shows 

 striatulationsor shaded radiating lines marking the position of the lamellae 

 beneath. 



The stem is occasionally solid, but commonly it is either hollow or 

 stuffed with a pith. When young it may be stufted, but be hollow with 

 age or in large specimens. In some species it has a long root-like exten- 

 sion, which penetrates the earth deeply; in others it is abruptly narrowed 

 at the base and not deeply rooted. In a few small species the basal pro- 

 longation is furnished with numerous branching fibrils. In some cases 

 the base of the stem is adorned with a mycelioid coating, while the rest 

 of the stem is quite glabrous. In a few small species the mycelium is 

 compacted into a sclerotioid tuber from which, under favorable circum- 

 stances, the fruiting fungus develops. The spores are white. 



Most of the species grow in woods or in bushy uncultivated places. 

 They grow on decaying wood, fallen leaves, dead, stems and other vege- 

 table matter; also, among mosses, and a few on naked soil. Some are 

 both terrestrial and lignicolous. They occur in surrmer and autumn, a 

 few appearing till cold weather stops their growth. 



Because of the small size of most of the species, and their thin and 

 rather tough flesh, they do not hold a very important place among edible 

 mushrooms. Still a few species are classed as edible. 



The genus was divided by Fries into two sections, depending on the 

 color of the lamellae. In the first and largest section the lamellae are de- 

 scribed as '* white or bright colored, not cinereous," and the flesh is said 

 to be white. In the second section the lamellae are " grayish," and the 

 plant hygrophanous. This section constitutes the tribe Tephrophana 

 The species of the first section are separated into three tribes, having the 

 following characters : 



StricBpedes. Stem stout, hollow or stuffed, grooved or fibrillosely 

 striate. ^ 



Vestipedes. Stem thin, equal, hollow or stuffed, even, velvety, floccose 

 or pruinose. 



LcBvipedcs. Stem thin, equal, hollow, glabrous (the base excepted), not 

 conspicuously striate. 



The species in each tribe have been arranged by Fries and other Euro- 

 pean authors in two groups, one having the lamellas broad and somewhat 



