CKATERELLUS, CAl^THAEELLUS AND RELATED 



GENERA IN NORTH CAROLINA; WITH A 



KEY TO THE GENERA OF GILL EUNGI* 



By W. C. Cokeb 



Key to the Genera of Agaricace.e or Gill Fungi 



A. Spores white or yellowish (except in forms of Pleurotus sapidus where 

 they are lilac, in certain species of Craterellus and Cantharellus and 

 Tricholoma where they are pinkish, and in Lepiota Morgani where 



they are greenish 1 



1. Plants fleshy, soft, usually soon decaying; if dried not reviving well 

 when moistened. (Some of the smaller species of CollyMa approach 

 very closely to Marasmius in texture and revive when moistened) 2 

 1. Plants leathery and toughish, pliable; if somewhat fleshy, then reviv- 

 ing and assuming their original shape when moistened after dry- 

 ing 16 



1. Plant corky or woody, firm, laterally sessile on wood (shelving) ; cap 



hairy, concentrically zonate (placed under the Polyporacece, which 

 are to be treated later) Lenzites 



2. Plant growing on decaying mushrooms (Russula) ; gills thick with 



broad, blunt margins, or not rarely aborted .Nyctalis 



2. Plant growing on decaying leaves of rhododendron, very minute (less 

 than 1 cm. high and 1 mm. broad), gills aborted or few and distant, 

 hymenium dissolving Eomycenella 



2. Plant not as above (if growing on other mushrooms the gills are not 



as in Nyctalis ) 3 



3. Spore-bearing surface (hymenium) smooth or obscurely veined 



towards the margin of the cap; plant funnel-shaped or with a spread- 

 ing cap (in C Cantharellus the spore surface is intermediate 



between this and the next genus) Craterellus 



3. Hymenium composed of more or less gill-like plates or veins, but their 

 margins blunt and anastomosing or branching; spores buff or 

 ochraceous or pinkish Cantharellus 



3. Hymenium composed of distinct gills, which are not fold-like or vein- 



like. (If the gills are thick with rather blunt margins, as in species 

 of Laccaria and Hygrophorus, they do not anastomose freely and 

 the spores are white) 4 



4. Plants exuding a milky or colored juice when broken; flesh of cap 



composed in large part of globular cells and usually rather fragile. 

 (The steam of some species of Mycena exudes a watery or colored 

 juice, but the flesh is not composed of globular cells, and the plants 

 are small and slender) Lactarius 



*The colored plate was painted by my niece, Dorothy Coker. Tlie spore plate was mostly 

 drawn by Miss Alma Holland. The photographs are by me and except where indicated are 

 natural size as is also the colored plate. 



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