176 SECTION HYGROCYBE 



Hesler 10247 (type, from Indian Creek, near Bryson City, July 30, 

 1939), 19197, 24374; Sharp 14258. south Carolina: Hesler 23159. Ten- 

 nessee: Sharp & Hesler 12738; Sharp 17670; Hesler 14227, 22588, 

 23075. France: Josserand (1937). 



Orservations — This species resembles H. hymenocephalus super- 

 ficially but lacks the palisade of clavate cells over the surface of the 

 pileus. It also differs in its closer gills which do not become dark gray 

 or drab in age. Its minute spores and lack of odor separate it from H. 

 ovinus and H. nitratus. In some respects it is very similar to H. sphaer- 

 osporus, but there is a distinct difference between the spores of these 

 two species and between the colors of the fruiting bodies. In H. de- 

 ceptivus, the spores tend to be slightly flat-sided, and are yellowish 

 brown in Melzer's reagent; the pileus when fresh is tawny-olive to 

 sayal brown, and retains these colors when dried. In H. sphaewsporus 

 the spores are not flat-sided, and are pale yellow or almost colorless in 

 Melzer's reagent; the pileus is whitish, inclining to reddish brown, 

 and when dried is definitely a dark reddish brown. H. schulzeri Bres. 

 sensu Josserand (1937) belongs here. 



94 



Hygrophorus subaustralis Sm. & Hes. 



Lloydia 5: 46. 1942 



Illustrations: 



Fig. 51; also 2e, 7g. 

 Dennis, Kew Bull. 2, fig. 5. 



Pileus 1-4 ( 5 ) cm broad, more or less conic, then convex to plane, 

 with a low conic umbo, margin incurved slightly at first, moist or dry, 

 not viscid, at times atomate, densely matted-fibrillose (under lens), 

 becoming rimose, shining white, disc at times slightly yellowish, 

 opaque, margin even. Context white, unchanging, waxy; odor mild, 

 taste bitter. 



Lamellae adnexed to emarginate, pure white, finally cream-tinted, 

 broad, close to subdistant, thin, distinctly waxy, edges even. 



Stipe 2-7(11) cm X 2-6 mm, equal, shining white, white within, 

 dry, appressed-fibrillose over all or the apex delicately pruinose, often 

 curved, equal, stuffed becoming hollow. 



Spores 5-6.5 X 3-4 /x, ellipsoid to more or less pip-shaped to subo- 

 void (from deposits), smooth, hyaline, yellowish in Melzer's reagent, 

 white in mass. Basidia 24-30 X 5-6 /x, 4-spored. Pleurocystidia scattered 

 to abundant, fusoid-ventricose with obtuse apices, more rarely sub- 

 cylindric, thin-walled, hyaline, 36-75 X 6-16 /x; cheilocystidia similar, 

 few. Gill trama parallel to subparallel, hyphae 5-12 /x broad. Cuticle of 



