BRIEPER ARTICLES 
SUCCESSFUL ARTIFICIAL CULTURES OF CLITOCYBE 
ILLUDENS AND ARMILLARIA MELLEA 
(WITH THREE FIGURES) 
During the course of some culture work with the wood-destroying 
polypores in the fall of 1913, it was found of interest to try out similar 
methods with an agaric form. Spores were obtained from a fungus that 
at the time was identi 
fied as Clitocybe illu- 
dens, and from it 
dilution cultures were 
made on a beef-malt- 
agar medium. The 
spores were found to 
germinate readily, and 
in the course of three 
or four days numerous 
separate colonies ap- 
peared on the agar sur- 
face. No evidence of 
contamination being 
visible, separate colo- 
nies were transferred 
to sterile culture tubes 
of the same medium on 
November 15. Vigor- 
ous growth took place 
and the tubes soon dis- 
played thick felts of a 
brownish-white myce- 
lium. 
Early in December a small dark brown area was noticed in one of the 
cultures, which soon gave rise to several dark brown finger-like papillae. 
These continued to elongate, and lighter colored, somewhat more slender 
regions appeared at their tips. These now enlarged rapidly and soon 
Botanical Gazette, vol..57] [524 
FIG. 1 
