REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST. 41 
(4.) 
NEW YORK SPECIES OF PSALLIOTA. 
«‘Stem annulate, distinct from the hymenophorum; lamelle free.” 
Hymen, Europ. p. 278. 
The name of the subgenus Psalliota is derived from the Greek word 
Wakhiov (WeddA10v), a bracelet or armlet. Its application to these 
Agarics was probably suggested by the annulus or ring which encircles 
the stem. The species of this subgenus correspond in structure to 
those of the subgenus Lepiota in the Leucospori or white-spore series 
and to those of the subgenus Annularia in the Hyporhodii or pink- 
spore series. ‘The tendency of the flesh in some species of Psalliota to 
change color when cut or bruised corresponds also to a similar tend- 
ency in some of the Lepiote. No corresponding subgenus has yet 
been established in the Dermini or ochraceous-spore series, nor in the 
Coprinarii or black-spore series. The Agarics belonging to the sub- 
genus Psalliota are generally of medium or large size and rather at- 
tractive in appearance until the lamellae have assumed the blackish 
color of age. They are most abundant in late summer or autumn, 
but in warm wet weather some of them occur early in the season also. 
The pileus is more or less fleshy but usually rather brittle or easily 
broken. It may be either smooth, fibrillose or scaly. Sometimes even 
individuals of the same species exhibit pilei with all these characters. 
The fibrillose pileus of a young individual may become either smooth 
or scaly with age. No species having a viscid pileus appears yet to 
haye occurred either in our State or in Europe, though an Ohio species 
A. fabaceus, Berk., is described as having the pileus viscid when moist. 
The lamellz are generally close or crowded and rounded at their inner 
extremity and not attached to the stem. They change color with ad- 
vancing age, becoming darker as they grow older. This change of 
color is in great measure due to the development of the spores which 
cause the lamellze to assume their own brown or blackish-brown hue. 
The lamellz of young plants are generally whitish or pallid, changing 
in some species, directly from this color to the brown color of maturity, 
and in others, assuming an intervening pinkish rosy or reddish hue 
before taking on the final dark or sombre color. The exceptional A. 
fabaceus is described as having the lamelle brown even in the young 
plant, but even in this case they are said to become darker with age. 
_ In the common mushroom, A. campestris, they may become moist or 
subdeliquescent when old, thus indicating a relationship with the inky 
species of the genus Coprinus. The stem is fleshy and furnished with 
an annulus or ring, which in some species varies in its degree of de- 
velopment, and in others is more or less thin and somewhat evanes- 
[Sen. Doc. No. 53.] 6 
