Annual Report of the State Botanist. 3!) 



The species of Tricholom a are numerous and are mostly rather 

 large, having- a fleshy pileus and a stout fleshy or fibrous-fleshy 

 stem and white spores. The veil is usually very slight, consisting 

 of a mere pruinosity or of a minute tomentum or of downy flocci or 

 fibrils adhering to the margin of the pileus, and it is not often 

 noticeable except in the young plant. The pileus is often thick 

 and umbonate but very rarelj" umbilicate. The genus is distin- 

 guished from Armillaria, on one hand, by the entire absence of an 

 annulus and from Clitocybe, on the other, by the sinuate or 

 emarginate lamellae and the fleshy or fibrous fleshy stem. From 

 CoUybia, in which the character of the lamellae is similar, it is 

 distinguished by its more fleshy pileus and stem and by its more 

 terrestrial habitat, for nearly all its species grow on the ground. 



Some of the species are known to be edible and probably many 

 others are. None are known to be absoluielj' poisonous. 



The species were arranged by Fries in two series, one of which 

 was composed of four tribes, the other of three. One tribe in each 

 series is yet unrepresented in our Flora. The principal distinguish- 

 ing features of the series and tribes are found in the iDileus. 



E^Y TO THE Tribes 



Pileus viscid when moist Limacina. 



Pileus not viscid when moist 1 



1. Pileus dry - 



1. Pileus not dry 3 



2. Pileus fibrillose or adorned with floccose or fibrillose 



scales Genuina. 



2. Pileus punctate-granulose or adorned with smooth 



scales Rigidft. 



2. Pileus at first slightly silky, soon glabrous Serieella. 



3. Pileus fleshy, soft, fragile, adorned with watery spots or 



rivulose Guttata. 



3. Pileus compact, then spongy, glabrous, moist Spongiosa. 



3. Pileus thin, hygiophanous Hygrophana. 



Series A 



Pileus viscid when moist, squamose, fibrillose, gi-anuhited or silky, 



or if glabrous, its flesh firm, not spongy, watery or hygrophanous ; 



veil fibrillose. 



Limacina 



Pileus viscid when moist, either innately fibrillose, or squamulose, 



truly and firmly fleshy, not hygrophanous, the margin almost 



naked. 



