278 SECT10X HYGROPHORUS 



text white to yellowish, soft; odor and taste mild. 



Lamellae adnato-decurrent, white to yellowish, edges yellowish, 

 rather narrow, distant or subdistant, edges even. 



Stipe 4-10 cm long, 4-8 mm thick, white or whitish, at times be- 

 coming pale tawny or concolor with the pileus, the gluten staining the 

 stipe dull orange at it dries, apex white-pruinose above the glutinous, 

 fugacious tawny-reddish ring-like outer veil, at times the base enlarged- 

 clavate, stuffed. 



Spores 8-10 X 4.5-6 /x, ellipsoid, smooth, pale yellow in Melzer's 

 reagent. Basidia 48-66 X 5-8 /x, mostly 2-spored, some 4-spored, 

 rarely 1-spored. Pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia none. Gill trama di- 

 vergent, hyphae 5-11 /x broad, at times with a brownish, narrow medio- 

 strate. Cuticle a gelatinous zone, 100-280 fx broad, with narrow (2-5 /*), 

 colorless, interwoven hyphae which tend to be erect (an ixotricho- 

 dermium). No hypodermium differentiated. Pileus trama of inter- 

 woven, radially disposed hyphae. Clamp connections present on the 

 cuticular hyphae. 



Habit, Habitat, and Distbibution — Gregarious to subcaespitose 

 on soil, in bogs and under larch, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, 

 Michigan, Alabama, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachu- 

 setts, Maine, and Canada (Quebec), August-October. 



Matebial Studied — Alabama: Burke 91b. abizona: Lowe 9265. 

 idaho: Bigelow 47157; Cooke 18554; Gruber P55, P85; Slipp 574, 1275, 

 1474; Smith 23579, 53566, 52790, 53942. maine: Webster, Kennebunk, 

 Oct. 20, 1901. Massachusetts: Bigelow 9370. Michigan: Bailey 110; 

 Smith 1077, 1086, 1237, 15480, 27611, 31953, 38758, 43976, 58294; Smith 

 & Shaffer 53432. new yobk: Kauffman, North Elba; Peck (type, from 

 Grieg, Lewis Co.); Smith 966; Snell, Newcomb 1934. obegox: Smith, 

 Ochocho National Forest, Nov. 13, 1941; 19515, 19806, 23732, 24117, 

 27358, 27389, 27438, 27880, 53523. Pennsylvania: Rea 442. Tennes- 

 see: Hesler 4427. Washington: Copeland, Bumping River, Oct. 17, 

 1948; Smith 54118. Canada: (Quebec) Smith 61489; (Ontario) Jack- 

 son 9630. 



Obsebvations — H. aureus was first described as growing under 

 hardwoods. We have no species from such a habitat remotely resem- 

 bling the description in Fries' Monographia. We do have two similarly 

 colored Hi/grophori growing under larch, one with a fibrillose inner veil 

 and one without it. As near as we can determine, the one lacking the 

 inner veil is what Peck described and illustrated as H. speciosus. The 

 other taxon was best described by Kauffman as a robust H. speciosus, 

 and we here describe it as a variety of H. speciosus naming it in his 

 honor. 



