192^] The Laccarias and Clitocybes of North Carolina 101 



3181. Among pines near branch southeast of campus, October 5, 1918. Spores 



■white, spherical, papillate, 7-9/1. 

 3246. By branch in deciduous woods, Lone Pine Hill, May 25, 1919. Spores 



7-9.3/i thick. 

 5118. By branch south of campus, May 19, 1922. Typical. Spores spherical, 



minutely spinulose (less so than in L. tortilis), 6-8. 2/x thick. 



Asheville. Very common. Beardslee. 

 Blowing Rock. Atkinson. 

 Reported by Curtis. 



South Carolina: Hartsville. In pines and in a field, December 26, 1918 

 (No. 72. W. C. Coker, coll.). 



3. Laccaria amethystea (Bull.) Murrill. 



Plates 1 and 33 



Cap 1-5 cm. broad, irregularly crumpled and lobed, in age the 

 margin uplifted or reflexed ; the center depressed or plane; surface 

 like rougish leather, the margin finely scaly, not squamulose all over 

 as typically in L. laccata, color when not soaked avellaneous to vi- 

 naceous buff (Ridgway) ; when young and when soaked almost as 

 purple as the gills, the margin retaining the purple longer. Flesh 

 very thin, up to 1 mm., toughish, concolorous, taste and odor musty- 

 fungoid. 



Gills distant, thick and leathery, up to .3.3 mm. thick, irregular, 

 broadly adnate and decurrent by a tooth, color at all ages deep violet 

 purple (about dull Indian purple of Ridgway), at maturity dusted 

 with the spores. 



Stem 3-5 cm. long, 2-5 mm. thick, sub-equal or enlarged below or 

 above, crooked, tough, color of cap or whitish with a scurfy sur- 

 face ; in youth purple ; stuffed then hollow. 



Spores white, spherical, minutely spinulose, 7-10/^ thick. Basidia 

 5.5-8.5/x thick, 2-4 sterigmata. Hymenium 48/x thick, with many 

 crystals. Threads of the gill flesh 3.7-8//,. 



In damp places in woods ; rather rare. This plant has been con- 

 sidered a species or a variety or only a form of C. laccata. Peck 

 treats it as a good species, Kauffman as a variety and Ricken as only 

 a form. Careful comparison in the fresh state of this and the com- 

 mon form of C. laccata shows the latter to differ in broader, thinner, 

 less distant and notched gills of a pinkish-lilac (much paler) color, 

 cap more squamulose and buffy-cinnamon in color. For other illus- 

 trations of L. amethystea see Mycologia 10: pi. 8, fig. 2. 1918; 



