Agaricaceae 



piuteus. Plant 2-6 in. high. Pileus 2-4 in. broad. Stem 3-6 lines thick. 



The typical form has the pileus and stem of a dingy or brown color 

 and adorned with blackish fibrils, but specimens occur with the pileus 

 white, yellowish, cinereous, grayish-brown or blackish-brown. I have 

 never seen it of a true cervine color. It is sometimes quite glabrous 

 and smooth to the touch and in wet weather it is even slightly viscid. 

 It also occurs somewhat floccose-villose on the disk, and the disk, 

 though usually plane or obtuse, is occasionally slightly prominent or 

 subumbonate. The form with the surface of the pileus longitudinally 

 rimose or chinky is probably due to meteorological conditions. The 

 gills, though at first crowded, become more lax with the expansion of 

 the pileus. They are generally a little broader toward the marginal 

 than toward the inner extremity. Their tendency to deliquesce is often 

 shown by their wetting the paper on which the pileus has been placed 

 for the purpose of catching the spores. The stem is usually somewhat 

 fibrous and striated but forms occur in which it is even and glabrous. 

 When growing from the sides of stumps and prostrate trunks it is apt to 

 be curved. Two forms deserve varietal distinction. 



Var. afbns. Pileus and stem white or whitish. 



Var. al'bipes. Pileus cinereous yellowish or brown. Stem white or 

 whitish, destitute of blackish fibrils. 



In Europe there are three or four forms which have been designated 

 as species under the names of A. rigens, A. patricius, A. eximius and 

 A. petasatus, but Fries gives them as varieties or subspecies of A. cer- 

 vinus, though admitting that they are easily distinguished. None of 

 these have occurred in our state. Peck, 38th Rep. N. Y. State Bot. 



Var. visco'sus. The normal character of the cuticle of the species is 

 slightly viscid in wet weather, but the specimens we collected and photo- 

 graphed were exceedingly viscid. They also differed from the normal 

 form in their lighter color, flesh much thicker at the disk and thin at the 

 margins, and cuticle not appearing fibrillose. It is close to petasatus, 

 but differs, however, in its narrower gills and in having no striae. It is 

 a good variety if it is not a good species. Lloyd, Myc. Notes. 



Spores 7-8x5-6)". K.; 6-8x4-5/01 B.;^^ W. G.S.; 5 .8x4.6^ Morgan. 



Frequent on decaying stumps, roots and wood, May to frost. Mc- 

 I lvalue. 



Its free gills should distinguish it from any Entoloma, though both 

 have pink spores and eventually pink gills. Among the earliest of 



244 



