HYGEOPHOEUS. 331 



HYGEOPHOEUS. Fries, (fig. 1, p. 301.) 



Pileus regular or variously undulated and wavy, often 

 ■viscid or moist ; gills more or less decurrent, or sometimes 

 adnate or adnexed, waxy, often tHck and forked, but the 

 margin always thin and sharp, flesh of the pileus passing 

 unchanged into the trama ; stem central, continuous with the 

 flesh of the pileus ; spores subglobose or elliptical, smooth. 



Eygrophorus, Tries, Hym. Eur., p. 405 ; Cke., Hdbk., p. 289. 



Terrestrial, their development in many cases being favoured 

 by the early autumnal frosts; soon decaying; often very 

 fragile ; many species are glutinous or viscid. Bright colours, 

 as crimson, golden, lemon-yellow, &c., are not uncommon. 

 The gUls are usually distant, thick, and waxy, and in this 

 respect the genus approaches Cantharellus, but al"5vays differs 

 in the gills being broader and the margin or edge, thin and 

 and sharp. 



The essential character of the genus consists in the 

 hymenium at length becoming soft and separating from the 

 trama, a character remarkably well seen ia Sygrojplwrus 

 ■caprinus, H. coccineus, H. nitrosus, &c. (Fries.) 



ANALYSIS OF THE SUBGENERA OF 

 HYGBOPHOBUS. 



Suhgen. I. Htgeocybe. Fries, Syst. Myc, i. p. 101. 



Veil absent ; whole fungus slender, watery, fragile. 

 Pileus viscid when moist, shining when dry, rarely floccosely 

 scaly. Stem hollow, soft, not ornamented with granular or 

 wart-Hke projections. GiUs soft. Most species brightly 

 coloured. 



Suhgen. II. Camaeophtllus. Fries, Sysf. Myc, i. p. 98. 



Veil absent, stem even, glabrous or fibrillose, not rough 

 with wart-Kke projecting points. Pileus firm, opaque, moist 

 in rainy weather, but not viscid. GiUs distant, arcuate. 



