28 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



close, rounded behind, slightly adnexed or free, whitish; stem 

 equal, hollow, glabrous, usually white tomentose at the base, red- 

 dish brown or purplish brown ; spores white, elliptic, .00024.0003 

 of an inch long, .00016 broad. 



The tufted collybia is an inhabitant of the woods of our hilly 

 and mountainous districts. It grows in dense tufts on decaying 

 prostrate trunks of trees and among decaying leaves or on bits 

 of rotten wood half buried by fallen leaves. The caps are rather 

 thin and convex when young, but they expand with age and be- 

 come broadly convex or nearly plane. When young and moist 

 they are of a pale tan color or brownish red sometimes with, a 

 pinkish tint but as the moisture escapes they fade to a whitish 

 color. In the European plant they are said to be umbonate but 

 in the American plant the umbo is rarely present. The gills are 

 quite narrow and close. They are rounded at the inner extremity 

 and either slightly attached to the stem or quite free from it. 

 They are whitish or slightly tinged with pink. The stem is 

 rather slender, rigid but brittle, hollow and smooth except at the 

 base where it is usually clothed with a white tomentum. The 

 color is reddish brown or pui*plish brown but in the young plant 

 it is often whitish at the top. 



The cap is commonly 1-2 inches broad ; the stem 2-3 inches long, 

 1.5-2.5 lines thick. The plants usually grow in clusters and occur 

 during August and September. Though the individual plants are 

 small they grow in such abundance that it is not difficult to obtain 

 a sufficient supply for cooking. They are slightly tough but of 

 good flavor and harmless. 



Collybia familia Pk. 



FAMILY COLLYBIA 



PLATE 84, FIG. 1-7 



Pileus thin, fragile, hemispheric or convex, glabrous, hy- 

 grophanous, while moist sometimes slightly striatulate on the 

 margin, whitish, grayish or pale smoky brown, sometimes 

 brownish or more highly colored in the center; lamellae thin, 

 narrow, close, rounded at the inner extremity, nearly free, white; 

 stem slender, glabrous, hollow, white or whitish, commonly with 



