SUBSECTIOh HYGROCYBE l ( >l 



Spores 7. .5-10 x 4.5-6 //, ellipsoid, smooth, yellowish in Melzer's 

 reagent. Basidia 33-42 x 7-8 y. most!) l-spored, a Fev 2-spored. Pleu- 

 rocystidia and cheilocystidia none, Gill trama of broad, subparallel hy- 

 phae. Cuticle oi repent to more or less erect, brownish hyphae. Pileus 

 trama of radial hyphae. Clamp connections on the cuticular hyphae. 



Habit, Habitat, \\i> Distmbution — On soil, in deciduous wood. 

 Tennessee, July-August; also Europe. 



Material Studied — Tennessee: Hosier 12737,22383. France: Bas 

 1112 (ex-Herb. Univ. Leiden). 



Observations — This speeies is between //. ovinus ( which turns 

 pinkish where bruised, and the odor faint but not nitrons), and //. ni- 

 tratus (the color of which is unchanging, but has a nitrous odor). Hy- 

 grophorus nitiosus shows the color change of ovinus, and the nitrons 

 odor of nitratus. 



Haller (1951a) discusses this species as known to him through his 

 collections. In his material, the lamellae are cream; in our collections 

 and that of Bas' collection from France, the lamellae are whitish, i.e., 

 only slightly paler. In all these collections, however, the gills become 

 reddish, pinkish, or brownish where bruised. It is Hallers opinion that 

 H. nitiosus is included in the description which we (Smith and Hesler, 

 1942) give for H. ovinus. In the present studies, we have referred to 

 H. ovinus those individuals of this complex which show 7 a color change 

 and a faint but fragrant (fruity) odor. In our earlier work (1942) we 

 followed Bresadola (1928) in admitting to H. nitratus a collection in 

 which there was a color change. That and similar collections we here 

 refer to H. nitiosus. It is now known that H. metapodius differs from 

 all of these in its amyloid spores. 



107 



Hygrophorus cinerascens Berk. & Br. 



Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 11: 562. 1871. Emend. Petch, Ann. R. Bot. Gar. 



Peradeniya 6: 324. 1917 



Illustration: 



Dennis, Kew Bull. 2, fig. 6. 



Pileus 4 cm broad, hemispherical, becoming campanulate, then ex- 

 panded, with a small umbilicus which is perforated at a very early 

 stage to connect with the cavity of the stipe, fuscous, very dark when 

 young, paling and exposing the drab-gray flesh between the fibrils 

 with age, drying black. Ccntext thin, very hygrophanous. 



Lamellae adnate-decurrent, drab-gray, subdistant, medium broad, 

 wedge-shaped, thick. 



