138 Thirty-eighth Keport on the State Museum. 



thickened at the base, yellow or yellowish-white, with a white mycelium; 

 spores subglobose or broadly elliptical, .00025 to .0003 in. long, .00025 

 broad. 



Var. fuscus. Pileus brown or yellowish-brown. 



Plant I to 2 inches high, pileus 6 to 10 lines broad, stem .5 o t i line 

 thick. 



Decaying wood and prostrate trunks in forests. Common in hilly and 

 mountainous districts. July to September. 



This beautiful Pluteus is closely related to P. chrysophlebius, B. & R., 

 a southern species, which, according to the description, has the veins of 

 the pileus darker colored than the rest of the surface and the stem en- 

 larged above and hairy at the base, characters not shown by our plant. 

 It is also similar to the European P. chrysophceus, Sch3eff.,but accord- 

 ing to Fries that species is larger and has a more even pileus, which is 

 constantly cinnamon-colored. The variety, which grows with the typi- 

 cal form, sometimes on the same prostrate trunk with it, differs only in 

 color, and forms a connecting link between this species and the Euro- 

 pean, P. phlebophoriis, Ditm., from which it is scarcely distinguish- 

 able, except by its smaller size, hygrophanous character and striatulate 

 margin. Indeed all the species, together with P. leoninus, Schseff., 

 differ from each other by such slight characters that their separation 

 is unsatisfactory. It is quite possible that when the range of their varia- 

 tions is more fully investigated they will be found to constitute a single 

 comprehensive and very variable species. In our plant small young 

 specimens sometimes have the stem solid, but when fully developed it 

 is hollow, though the cavity is small. This character, with its small 

 size, distinguishes it from P. leoninus. 



