292 SECTION HYGROPHORUS 



ously virgate beneath the gelatinous layer with smoke-gray to black 

 fibrils, disc umber to black, the margin paler and dark to light ash- 

 gray. Context thick on the disc, soft, white; odor and taste not dis- 

 tinctive. 



Lamellae adnate to subdecurrent, pure white or somewhat ashy at 

 the base, close to subdistant, moderately broad, thickish. 



Stipe 8-12 ( 15) cm long, 10-30 mm thick, peronate to near the apex 

 with a double sheath, the outer layer glutinous, the inner layer of ap- 

 pressed blackish fibrils similar to those on the pileus and forming a 

 subfloccose, evanescent, apical, annular zone or submembranous annu- 

 lus, in age the sheath often breaks up into dark concentric ragged 

 bands over the lower portion, white and glabrous to pruinose above 

 the annulus, clavate to equal, solid, white within. 



Spores 9-12 X 5-6 n, ellipsoid, smooth, yellowish in Melzer's rea- 

 gent. Basidia 46-62 X 7-10 /x, 4-spored, sterigmata stout. Pleurocystidia 

 and cheilocystidia none. Gill trama divergent, hyphae 3-8 /* broad. 

 Cuticle a broad (250-450 jx) zone of gelatinous, repent, fuscous hy- 

 phae, 2-3 fi broad, an ixocutis. No hypodermium evident. Pileus trama 

 of radial hyphae. Clamp connections on the cuticular hyphae. 



Habit, Habitat, and Distribution — Caespitose, gregarious, or 

 scattered under redwood and spruce, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colo- 

 rado, Michigan, New York, and Canada; July-December; also Europe. 



Material Studied— California : Smith 3635, 3698, 8785, 9061, 

 9141, 9588, 56414, 56547, 56897, 56955, 57018. Colorado: Hesler 12691; 

 Mains 5203; Smith 52187. idaho: Smith 23519, 23577, 53295, 53501, 

 54815, 54759, 60100, 60207. Michigan: Bailey 34; Kauffman 2478. new 

 york: Kauffman, Ithaca, Oct. 31, 1903. Oregon: Smith 3603. Canada: 

 (Quebec) Hoare 24703, 27013. Denmark: J. P. Jensen (Hesler 23957). 



Observations — The outstanding character of this species is the 

 double sheath over the greater portion of the stipe. The outer layer is 

 glutinous, and the thin inner layer is composed of floccose fibrils similar 

 in color with and at first connected to the fibrillose coating under the 

 gluten of the pileus. As the stipe elongates the inner sheath breaks up 

 into irregular fuscous bands. The American specimens have been com- 

 pared with specimens from Dr. Rolf Singer, collections from Leningrad, 

 U.S.S.R., and Mr. Marcel Josserand, Lyon, France. Kauffman's (1922) 

 collections of H. fuscoalbiis from Colorado belong in H. olivaceoalbus. 

 For comments on the species Kauffman referred to H. olivaceoalbus, 

 see H. paluclosus. 



