98 SECTION HYGROTRAMA 



Stipe 2-4 cm long, 2-3 mm thick at apex, concolorous with pileus or 

 over the lower portion darker, narrowed downward, glabrous, surface 

 scabrous-dotted at first but naked in age. 



Spores 4.5-6 X 4.5-5 fx, subglobose to broadly elliptic, smooth, yel- 

 lowish in Melzer's reagent. Basidia 34-42 x 5-7 /*, 4-spored, elongate- 

 clavate, lower part often flexuous. Pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia 

 none. Gill trama interwoven, brownish in water when fresh, dull cinna- 

 mon revived in KOH. Pileus trama colored like the gill trama (pig- 

 ment thinly incrusted on the hyphae), interwoven. Cuticle a dense 

 palisade layer of more or less upright enlarged pseudoparenchyma- 

 tous elements varying from 20 X 12 fx and subglobose ( the cross wall 

 just beneath the enlargement) to elongated pyriform to ventricose 

 capitate elements 10-60 X 5-20 /*. Pileus trama of compactly and 

 slightly interwoven hyphae, disposed more or less radially. Clamp con- 

 nections absent. 



Habit, Habitat, and Distbibution — Caespitose in an open young 

 stand of hardwoods, on naked soil, Michigan and Idaho, August; also 

 Europe. 



Material Studied — idaho: Smith 60437. Michigan: Smith 39673. 



NETHEBLANDS: Bas, Oct. 8, 1957. 



Obsebvations — This is a most distinctive species by reason of the 

 hymeniform cuticle, pungent disagreeable odor, cinnamon brown color, 

 small spores, wood-brown gills, and incrusted pigment on the hyphae. 

 Our collections appear to be identical with H. foetens, and we place 

 them there in spite of slight difference in the odor, foetid as against 

 pungent. Moreover, our material agrees well, in macroscopic and mi- 

 croscopic characters, with specimens kindly communicated to us by 

 Bas, at Leiden, Netherlands. 



In our estimation Nuesch's (1922) account of H. foetens, in which 

 the stipe is described as olive-yellow, applies to some other species. In- 

 formation on the type of H. foetens, if it exists, is needed to establish 

 the presence (or absence) of clamp connections and whether or not 

 the cuticle is hymeniform. 



40 



Hygrophorus subfuscescens Sm. & Hes. var. subfuscescens 



Sydowia 8: 317. 1954 



Illustration: 

 Fig. 24. 



Pileus 6-15(25) mm broad, convex when young but margin 

 straight to connivent, in age broadly convex or the margin flaring, 



