166 SECTION HYGROCYBE 



Illustrations: 



Fig. 48; also 8g. 



Murrill, Mycologia 6, pi. 113, fig. 2 (as Hydrocybe caespitosa Mm 



Pileus 1-6 cm broad, convex or the disc flattened, soon broadly or 

 deeplv depressed over the disc and with a spreading or turned-up 

 margin, color usually "cream buff" to "honey yellow," sometimes bright 

 yellow, covered with small scales over all, scales somewhat recurved 

 and "old gold" to darker brownish, the tips often blackish, moist, soon 

 dry, not viscid, margin even or wavy. Context fairly thick, yellowish to 

 bright yellow; odor and taste not distinctive or slightly of raw Irish 

 potato. 



Lamellae broadly adnate-decurrent or developing a long tooth, at 

 times slightly sinuate-decurrent, white becoming vellowish, broad, 

 thick, occasionally forked, triangular, subdistant to distant. 



Stipe 2-5 cm long, 3-7(10) mm thick, concolorous with the pileus 

 or a more sordid olivaceous yellow-brown, tapering slightly downward, 

 glabrous, often flexuous, moist or dry, spongy, becoming hollow. 



Spores 6.5-9(10) X 4-6(7) /a, ellipsoid, smooth, not amyloid, white 

 in mass. Basidia (31)40-60 X (6.5)7-9 /a, 4-spored, the sterigmata 

 8-10 fx long. Pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia none. Gill trama sub- 

 parallel to slightly interwoven, hyphae (8-12)15-19(28) /a broad, yel- 

 lowish in iodine. Pileus trama homogeneous beneath a turf -like cover- 

 ing of upright to appressed hyphae the free ends of which often bear a 

 slightly enlarged clavate, ovoid, to ellipsoid cell, all parts golden yellow 

 in iodine. Clamp connections rare on the gill trama hyphae; rare or 

 none on the cuticular hyphae. 



Habit, Habitat, and Distbibutiox — Caespitose or in small groups 

 of two or three individuals, in coniferous and deciduous woods, on clay 

 banks, or on mossy soil, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, 

 Maryland, New York, June- August. 



Material Studied — Alabama: Burke 44. Georgia: Hesler 21928. 

 new york: Murrill (type, east of Bronx Park, Sept. 26, 1909). Mary- 

 land: Kauffman, Cabin John, Aug. 22, 1919. north Carolina: Totten 

 7041; Hesler 12258, 13948, 14421. Tennessee: Hesler & Sharp 8130, 

 12835, 14242; Norris 21929; Smith 10658; Stupka 17811. 



Observations — Some of the specimens of the type are character- 

 ized by relatively long slender stipes in the dried condition. Murrill's 

 dimensions of the fresh material, however, were 4-5 cm X 3-5 mm, 

 and thus the stipe would seem to be fairly thick in relation to the 

 length. In most of our collections the stipes are shorter, and the fruiting 

 bodies have a squatty appearance. However, this is hardly a distinctive 

 character. We have not found the species fruiting in abundance, but it 



