SUBSECTION CAMAROPHYLLI 327 



unchanging, thin, taste mild, odor not recorded (apparently none 

 present ) . 



Lamellae white, broad (5 mm), distant, arcuate, decurrent, un- 

 equal, usually only one tier of lamellulae, not forking, somewhat 

 interveined or occasionally anastomosing, edges thin. 



Stipe 7-11 cm long, 6-10 mm thick, deeply rooting to possessing a 

 distinct pseudorhiza from which up to 6 carpophores may develop, 

 pure white where exposed, pruinose above, fibrillose striate, dry, 

 tending to split longitudinally; pseudorhiza covered with a false 

 "volva" which can be peeled off and consists of a tough gray-brown 

 layer lined on the inside by white fibrous-tomentose layer and covered 

 over the exterior by dirt. 



Spore deposit white; spores 6-8.4 X 3.6-5.4 /x, ellipsoid, smooth. 

 Basidia 2- and 4-spored, hyaline in KOH, 30-36 X 5-7 /x, rather short. 

 Pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia none; gill trama clearly of divergent 

 hyphae; epicutis of pileus a thin layer of interwoven hyaline narrow 

 (2-4 fx) subgelatinous hyphae. Clamp connections present. 



Habit, Habitat, and Distbibution — On ground in oak woods, 

 solitary to caespitose (a number of carpophores from a single pseu- 

 dorhiza), Rocky Nook Park, Santa Barbara, Calif. Type collected by 

 Paul and Marian Rea 114 and 114a, Feb. 21, 28, 1939. 



Obsebvations — The pseudorhiza is a unique feature in Hygro- 

 phorus, but the color change of the pileus is perhaps equally as distinc- 

 tive, and relates the species to those of series Rubentes. In series 

 Clitocyboides it is closest to H. ellenae on spore characters, but, 

 though both can occur caespitosely, H. eVenae lacks the pseudorhiza. 

 We suspect the 4-spored basidia produce spores about 3.5 /* broad. The 

 "volva" described by the Reas is, as they realized, not the remains of 

 a veil but rather a "cortex" composed of mycelium and soil. 



198 



Hygrophorus albicastaneus (Murr. ), comb. nov. 



Clitocybe albicastanea Murr., Mycologia 5: 206. 1913. 



Pileus 3-7 cm broad, hemispheric to broadly convex, at length 

 slightly depressed in the center, glabrous, viscid when moist, white, 

 becoming yellowish and finally dull rusty brown on drying. Context 

 fleshy, thick (10 mm), white, compact, firm. 



Lamellae white, becoming yellowish and on drying dingv brown 

 to dark reddish brown (as in H. variicolor), adnate but finally de- 

 current, narrow ( 3-5 mm ) , subdistant, attenuated at both ends finallv, 

 1-2 tiers of lamellulae. 



Stipe 4-8.5 cm long, 12-14 mm thick ( or as thin as 4-7 mm ) solid to 



