THE GENUS GALERULA IN NORTH AMERICA. 



By GEO. F. ATKINSON. 

 (Read April 19, igi8.) 



Galerttla^ is a genus of yellow-spored Agaricaceee including 

 small plants or those of medium size, but slender in form, and 

 fragile. The species have no claim to rank of economic importance, 

 while their ecological role as saprophytes is not large, owing to the 

 comparatively small number of individuals. Many species are usu- 

 ally associated with mosses on logs or ground in the woods or 

 swamps. A number of species occur on dung heaps or in recently 

 manured grass lands. The larger number of species are some shade 

 of yellow, or tawny, or ochraceous. In taxonomic works the genus 

 is usually divided into sections according to external characters and 

 ecological relations. By this method the species are not grouped 

 according to their real affinities, and in a few cases forms not closely 

 related are assembled under a single specific name. 



A high degree of internal structural differentiation has taken 

 place in the evolution of the species. In the present study this 

 vantage point has been employed to group the species into sections 

 more nearly in accord with their true relationships. 



In some respects the genus, as usually recognized, occupies the 

 same position in the yellow-spored Agarics that Mycena 'does in the 

 white-spored group. The pileus is usually campanulate; the stem 



^Galera Blume, Bijdr.. 415, 1825, is employed for a genus of orchids. 

 Galera, by Fries in Syst. Myc, 2 : 264, 1821, as a tribe of Agaricus, was raised 

 to generic rank by Quelet in 1872 ("Champ. Jura et Vosges," 135). There- 

 fore while Galera Fries antedates Galera Blume by four years, it was used 

 as a subgenus, or tribe, and cannot take precedence over Galera Blume, in 

 accordance with rule 49 of the International Rules for Botanical Nomencla- 

 ture. Galerula was employed by Karsten {Bidr. Finl. Nat. Folk., 32, 442) in 

 1879 as a genus for several species which he separated from Galera. Galerula 

 Karsten is employed here in the broader sense of the genus with practically 

 the same limits as used by Murrill in 1917 ("N. Am. Fl.," 10, 161, 1917). 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LVII, Y, AUGUST IQ, I918. 



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