190 JOUKN-AL OF THE MiTCHELL SoCIETY [MarcJl 



Eidgway). The browu can be seen showing through the white surface 

 •view and gives the effect of grajish-brown to the spine surface. In 

 age the bro^vn encroaches still more on the white tips, but for a long- 

 time there is the effect of gray over brown. Finally the white fades 

 entirely away and the whole becomes a deep natal-brown (almost 

 chocolate brown). 



Stem distinct, 3-4 cm. long, 0.8-2 cm. thick, irregular and dropsical 

 in appearance; surface colored like the deeper brown shades of the 

 old cap and spines, becoming blackish. Flesh composed of two dis- 

 tinct layers, a soft, spongy, water-soaked outer layer about 2-3 mm. 

 thick which grows around and catches the trash and leaves that touch 

 it, and a much firmer, sordid yellow-brown interior part which is 

 zoned with darker lines. 



Spores purplish-brown, subspherical, roughly and irregularly 

 warted and angled, one large oil drop, 3.7-4.6/* in diameter. 



This plant seems to be the southern representative of H. suaveolens. 

 Dried plants of the two species are very similar except for the longer 

 stems and absence of bluish or lavender zones in the flesh of our plants. 

 However, I notice that dried plants of H. suaveolens often fail to show 

 any obvious blue or violet tint to the darker zones, and I find a plant 

 from Finland at the l^ew York Botanical Garden (from Karsten) 

 that has as long a stem as ours and could scarcely be distinguished 

 from them, except for the dark purplish color of the stem surface and 

 flesh. I have no notes on the color of the mycelium of our plants, but 

 it could hardly be purple as that would have attracted my attention. 

 As H. suaveolens is considered as distinctly a northern plant, appears 

 to affect coniferous woods and is often quite large, it does not seem 

 possible to refer our plant to it. 



Absence of peppery taste and habitat in oak woods easily distinguish 

 this species from H. diaholus. The plants are also smaller than that 

 species and have longer stems in proportion to size. It cannot be P. 

 alhoniger as the black core is entirely lacking. It differs from H. 

 amicus in the absence of a fetid odor and in the ^varty and not spinu- 

 lose spores, which are also of a different color. From H. velutinum it 

 differs in the lighter color, different odor, smaller spores, and in the 

 fact that dried plants if put in a tumbler with enough water to cover 



