36 BULLETIN N. Y. STATE MUSEUM. 



The bridit color and leirular bifurcations of the lamellae render this 

 a beautiful and easily recognizable species. The pileus is somewhat 

 obconic in outline, but it is subject to some variation iu color. The 

 disk is often tinged with brown or smoky-brown and sometimes the 

 whole surface fades to a dingy buff-red. The margin is sometimes 

 a pale yellow or even whitish, and a form with whitish lamellae has 

 occurred in a sphagnous marsh near Albany. In the European plant 

 the stem is said occasionally to become black. This form is Merulius 

 nigripes Pers. The wholly white European form has not been found 

 here. 



The species is pronounced "poisonous" oy some authors, and 

 " scarcely esculent" by Rev. M. J. Berkeley. It is especially fond 

 of a damp mossy soil tilled with vegetable mold, and it sometimes 

 occurs quite late in the season. 



Cantharellus unibonatiis Fr. 



Umbonate Chantarelle. 



Pileus thin, soft, at first convex, then plane or centrally depressed, 

 umbonate, papillate or even, smooth or flocculose-silky, rarely mi- 

 nutely squamulose, bluish-cinereous, grayish-brown or blacki.sh-cin- 

 ereous, the flesh white ; lamellae thin, straight, more or less decur- 

 rent, dichotomous, white : stem equal or slightly tapering upward, 

 solid or stuffed, generally slightly silk3^ villose or white-tomentoseii 

 at the base, whitish or tinged with the color of the pileus ; spores 

 white, oblong or subfusiform, .0004 to .0005 in. long, .00016 to 

 .0002 broad. 



Plant 1 to 6 in. high, pileus 6 to 12 lines broad, stem 2 to 4 lines 

 thick. 



Damp, mossy ground in woods and open places. North Elba, 

 Catskill mountains and Karner. August to October. 



Var. suhcmruleus. Pileus bluish or l)luish-gray, silky and shining. 



Var. dicJiotomus. Pileus even or the uiubo reduced to a mere 

 papilla, grayish-brown. 



Var. brevior. Pileus as in variety dichotoynus, but the stem very 

 short, about 1 inch long, equal and scarcely silky. 



This is a variable species. All the descriptions of the European 

 plant which have come under my notice speak of it as umbonate, 

 and some emphasize this character and describe it as "always per- 

 sistent," " unchanged," etc. In the American plant it is often en- 

 tirely absent, and when present it is generally a mere acute papilla. 



