PSATHYRELLA. 339 



The root is small, round, hard, firm, and furnished with 

 numerous fibres. 



The stem is cylindrical, tall, of a dark fuscous-colour, both 

 within and without; it is hollow, and splits in long brown 

 filaments. 



The gills are arranged in three series ; they are very 

 broad in the middle, and diminish to each extremity ; the 

 colour is a dusky black, the substance tender and brittle. 



The pileus is convex, it is a kind of red deer colour, 

 with a broad belt of a dark brown, which colour is not 

 only on the surface but penetrates the whole substance of 

 the pileus ; in young plants the marginal light circle is 

 wanting ( = the dark zone reaches the margin of the 

 pileus). 



Grows on dunghills, after rain, in June and July. (Bolton.) 



PSATHYKELLA. Fries, (figs. 4, 14, p. 303.) 



Stem central ; pileus membranaceous, striated, margin 

 straight and pressed to the stem when young, not extending 

 beyond the free, adnexed, or adnate, persistent (not deli- 

 quescent) gills ; veil inconspicuous ; spores black. 



Agarictis, subgen. Psathyrella, Fries, Epicr., p. 237 ; Cke., 

 Hdbk., p. 221. 



Distinguished from Panaeolus and Anellana, by the striato 

 pileus, and from Coprinus by the persistent, and not deli- 

 quescent gills. The aberrent genus Gomphidius is distin- 

 guished by the subgelatinous nature of the gills and the 

 large fusiform spores. 



The present genus is closely allied to Psathyra, a genus in- 

 cluded in the Porphyrosporae ; but in the latter the purple 

 or brown colour of the spores is distinctive. 



* Stem straight, apex not mealy. 



Psathyrella substrata. Fr. 



Pileus 1-1 1 in. across, rather membranaceous, campanulate, 

 then expanded, obtuse, glabrous, slightly striate at the 

 margin, often rugulose, rufous-umber, when dry rufescent, 

 becoming pale ; gills adnate, rather narrow, crowded, smoky, 

 then blackish; stem 4-5 in. long, about H lines thick, hol- 



z 2 





