THE LACCARIAS AND CLITOCYBES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



By W. C. CoKER and H. C. Beardslee 



Plates 1 and 7-33* 



Laccaria 



Cap fleshy, thin, usually depressed or umbilicate in center; gills 

 thick with blunt margin, broadly adnate, in our species usually 

 notched at the stem (sinuate), colored conspicuously, whitened by 

 the abundant spores which are subglobose, white or faintly lavender, 

 and echinulate ; stem central, fibrous and toughish. Volva and veil 

 wanting. Gregarious or cespitose. Our four species of this genus 

 are very closely related, so much so that certain authors (Ricken, Die 

 Blatterpilze 2: 382. 1915) consider L. laccata, L. amethystca and L. 

 tortilis all forms of the same species, and from our observations in 

 several sections of the country it is impossible to define any one of 

 these three species so as to exclude forms of the others. In the 

 vicinity of Chapel Hill we find that L. laccata can be distinguished 

 usually by its thinner, closer, less irregular gills which are nearly 

 always paler than in the other two, where the variations are more 

 confusing. 



The genus differs from Clitocyhe in the globose, asperulate spores 

 and thicker gills which are more broadly attached, often sinuate and 

 not decurrent except by a little tooth. The attachment of the gills 

 is about as in Tricholoma, but that genus is separated by thinner gills 

 and different spores. In L. ochropurpurea, L. amethystea and L. 

 tortilis the mature gills are conspicuously white-dusted by the spores, 

 but in the commonest forms of L. laccata' this character is not well 

 shown. 



Important American Literature 



Kauffmann. Agaricaceae of Michigan, p. 747 (as Clitocyhe). 1918. 

 Morgan. Journ. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist. 6: 66 (as Clitocyhe). 1883. 

 Murrill. N. Am. Flora 10: 1. 1914. 

 Peck. Bull. N. Y. 8t. Mus. 157: 90. 1912. 



* In the colorpd plnte, figures 1, and 7 were painted liy Miss Dorothy Coker, figures 

 2 and 5, l)y Miss foriieliji S I.ove rind (ii;\ires :i and H. liy Miss Ahnn Ildllimd. All spore 

 drawings are by Miss Holland. Unless otherwise stated iiholograjihs are by Coker and 

 are nntiirnl size. Those tiy Beardslee iire noted "Photo hy B." The written matter is by 

 Coker unless otherwise stated. 



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