REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I9II 55 



rillosely striate, pallid or brownish, often with a white mycelioid 

 tomentum at the base; spores ellipsoid, 6-8 x 5-6 fi. 



Pileus 2-4 cm broad ; stem 2-5 cm long, 2-5 mm thick. 



The fading pholiota is a small but common species growing in 

 woods on decaying wood or branches. It is easily distinguished 

 from Pholiota a u t u m n a 1 i s Pk. by its viscid cap. The 

 change of color in the cap by the escape of its moisture is very 

 noticeable and is suggestive of the specific name. It grows singly 

 or somewhat gregariously and very rarely in small tufts. In this 

 case the caps are apt to be smaller than usual. It usually appears 

 in August and September. Its caps are rarely more than one and 

 a half inches broad. 



Psilocybe polycephala (Paul.) 



MANY CAP PSILOCVBE 



Plate 121, pg^i^cs i-g 



Pileus fleshy but thin, subcampanulate convex or nearly plane, 

 glabrous, even, hygrophanous, at first whitish with a reddish yellow 

 center, then darker or brownish and obscurely striatulate on the 

 margin while moist, paler or whitish when the moisture has escaped, 

 flesh white or whitish when dry, taste mild; lamellae thin, narrow, 

 close, adnexed or nearly free, whitish becoming purplish brown ; 

 stem equal or flexuous, hollow, glabrous, mealy or pruinose at the 

 top, white ; spores purplish brown, ellipsoid, 7-8 x 4-5 fi. 



Pileus 1-3 cm broad ; stem 2.5-5 cm long ; 2-4 mm thick. 



The many cap psilocybe is a small mushroom but it sometimes 

 occurs in such abundance as to make it available for culinary pur- 

 poses. It is not highly flavored but it is harmless. It has been 

 classed as a mere variety of Psilocybe spadicea Fr. from 

 which it difi^ers chiefly in its mode of growth and in its nearly free 

 fuscous brown gills. When growing on the ground it forms densely 

 crowded troops or patches several inches in diameter. This is 

 given as the typical form. It also grows on trunks of trees, but it 

 then appears to be more cespitose and to grow larger. This form 

 is represented in our plate by figures 3-9. Other marks by which 

 it differs from P. spadicea Fr. are its smooth, not scabrous, 

 pileus, and its clear white stem. The form growing on tree trunks 

 is larger than that growing on the ground and has the cap more 

 strongly convex approaching bell shape. It is darker brown when 

 moist and paler or whitish when dry. The dried specimens retain 

 this color better than the dried specimens of the terrestrial form in 



