THE WHITE-SPORED AGARICS 



97 



Figure ft. Clitocybe adirondackensis. Three-fourths natural size. Caps white. 



Clitocybe ochro purpurea. Berk. 

 The Clay-Purple Clitocybe. Edible. 



Ochropurpurea is from ochra, ocher or clay color; purpureas, purple; it is so 

 called because the caps are clay-color and the gills are purple. The caps are 

 convex, fleshy, quite compact, clay-colored, sometimes tinged with purple around 

 the margin, cuticle easily separating, margin involute, often at first tomentose, 

 old forms often repand or wavy. 



The gills are purple, sometimes whitish in old specimens from the white 

 spores, broad behind, decurrent, distant. 



The stem is paler than the cap, often tinted with purple, solid, frequently 

 long and swollen in the middle, fibrous. The spores white or pale yellow. 



The first time I found this species I never dreamed that it was a Clitocybe. 

 It was especially abundant on our wooded clay banks or hillsides, near Chillicothe, 

 during the wet weather in July and August of 1905. It is a hardy plant and 

 will keep for days. Insects do not seem to work in it readily. When cooked 

 carefully it is rather tender and fairly good. 



