SI BS1 ( I lOh PS/1 / u INI 



oate, lemon yellow Fading to white somewhat striate both before and 

 alter fading, viscid, margin often ver) irregular. Context yellow, fading 



to white; odor and taste not distinctive. 



Lamellae long-deenrrent. close to siibdistant. broad in mid- 

 portion, faces cream color in young eaps but lemon yellow in age and 

 unchanging when the cap has laded to whitish. 



Stipe 10-15 nun long, 2-3 mm thick at apex, lemon Yellow like the 



pileus and fading to white, narrowed downward, glabrous, and 

 shining, viscid. 



Spores 7-9( 10) x 4.-5-5 /*, broadly Fusoid in face view, inequilat- 

 eral in sick 4 view, smooth, hyaline, yellowish in Melzer's reagent. 

 Basidia 40—45 x 6-8 p, 4-spored, with a dense content ol oil globules 

 (hymenium yellow in section). Pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia none 

 seen. Gill trama interwoven to almost cellular because of the broad 

 short cells (as seen in sections), yellow in water mounts of fresh ma- 

 terial and when revived in KOI I. Cntick 1 a thin ixocutis of gelatinous. 

 repent hyphae. No hypodermium differentiated. Pileus trama of 

 radial hyphae. Clamp connections. 



Habit, Habitat, and Distribution — Scattered on tundra-like 

 bank, 5000 ft. elevation, Washington, September-October. 



Material Studied — Washington: Smith 40851 (type, from \ft. 

 Rainier National Park, Oct. 12, 1952), 48071, 48070, '47734; Stnntz 

 30608. 



Observations — This species would be identical with H. uitcllinus 

 Fr. were it not for the fusoid spores. Rea ( 1922 ) describes the spores 

 of the specimens he found as broadly elliptical, 8-9 x 6 /*. Nuesch 

 (1922) gives the dimensions as 5-8 X .3-5 fx and also describes them as 

 ellipsoid. Since the spores of the Mt. Rainier collection are clearly 

 broadly fusoid in face view and inequilateral in side view, we believe 

 the American collection represents a distinct species. J. Lange (1940) 

 comments on the confusion between H. ceracea and H. oiteUina. His 

 Hijgrocifbc citrina (Rea) Lange, however, does not have sufficiently 

 decurrent, bright-yellow gills to represent our species. There is, of 

 course, the possibility that we have the "true" //. viteUinus, but this 

 should be proven from examination of spores from authentic material 

 before trying to change existing concepts. Moller (1945) has given 

 what we consider to be the best account of Hygrocybe viteUina and 

 figures and describes the spores as ellipsoid and 6-8 X 4.5-5 p. 

 M. Lange (1955) reporting Hygrophorus v it ell inns from Greenland 

 gives the spores as subcylindric, 7.5-9 x 4-5 /x. 



