58 BULLETIN N. T. STATE MUSEUM. 



VisciPELLES. Pileus covered with a viscose pellicle. Stem solid, 

 neither bulbous nor reticulated with yeins. Tubes adnate to the stem, 

 rarely sinuate, of one color. Hym. Eiirop., p. 496. 



In this section the species have the pileus either viscid or glutinous 

 when moist, and in most of them the viscid pellicle is separable from 

 the flesh. The flesh, when cut or exposed to the air does not, with 

 one exception, assume the bluish tints so often seen in some of the 

 members of other sections, yet in some, dull-pinkish or more obscure 

 tints appear. In mature plants it generally becomes soft, almost 

 floccose or cottony in texture. The tubes are mostly adnate or even 

 slightly decurrent. In rare instances they may be somewhat de- 

 pressed around the stem. The pores are usually of medium or large 

 size and frequently angular. The dissepiments are often uneven or 

 dentate. The mouths are colored like the rest of the tubes. Yellow 

 or ochraceous hues prevail, but the tubes when young are paler than 

 when mature. The stem is not distinctly bulbous, is always solid 

 and generally glabrous or merely dotted. It is annulate in some, 

 naked in others. In several closely related central species of the 

 group it, as well as the tubes, exudes, when young, drops of a thick, 

 gummy fluid, which soon hardens, becomes darker and forms sugary 

 granules or glandular dots. The color of the spores is by no means 

 uniform, but it is some shade of ochraceous, ferruginous or brown. 

 The first and last species here described are exceptional by their 

 slight viscidity. The first is also exceptional by its universal tomeu- 

 tose-pulverulent veil. Several species are edible. Nearly all occur 

 in regions inhabited by pine or other coniferous trees, and are want- 

 ing in localities destitute of these trees. 



Synopsis of the Species. 



stem annulate. 1. 



Stem not annulate. 6. 



1 Cuticle of the pileus red. 2. 



1 Cuticle of the pileus not red. 3. 



2 Pileus either wholly or on the margin yellow-pulverulent. B. Ravenelii. 



2 Pileus squamose. B. spectabilis. 



3 Young- tubes whitish. B. Elbensis. 



3 Young tubes yellow. 4. 



4 Stem not dotted. B. Clintonianus. 



4 Stem dotted. 5. 



5 Stem 5 lines or more thick, annulus not glutinous. B. luteus. 



5 Stem less than 5 lines thick, annulus glutinous. B. subluteus. 



6 Stem dotted. • 7. 



6 Stem not dotted. 9. 



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