Report of the State Botanist. 41 



(4.) 

 NEW YORK SPECIES OF PSALLIOTA. 



"Stem annulate, distinct from the hymenophorum; lamellae free." 

 Hymen, Eur op., p. 278. 



The name of the subgenus Psalliota is derived from the Greek word 

 WaWiov {WsXkiov), 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 Lepiot^e. 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. 

 have 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 lamellae are generally close or crowded and rounded at tlieir 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 lamellae to assume their own brown or blackish-brown hue. 

 The lamellae 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 J. 

 fahaceus is described as liaving the lamellae 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 

 Bpecies 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 



