376 SECTION HYGROPHORUS 



thick on disc, thin on margin; odor and taste mild. 



Lamellae adnate, often becoming adnexed or decurrent, white, 

 close to crowded, thin, moderately narrow, tapering either way, many 

 short, edges even. 



Stipe 3-9 cm long, 4-18 mm thick, white, equal or tapering slightly 

 toward the base, stuffed-solid, dry or sublubricous when wet, densely 

 pruinose to fibrillose-punctate, subglabrous toward the base, stuffed- 

 solid, becoming yellow, base often curved. Partial veil slight, fugacious. 



Spores (6)7-8(9) X 3.5-5 //,, ellipsoid, smooth, white in mass, yel- 

 low in Melzer's reagent. Basidia 36-58 X 5-8 /*, 2- and 4-spored. Pleuro- 

 cystidia and cheilocystidia none. Gill trama divergent, hyphae 4-9 n 

 broad. Cuticle a broad (50-200 /x) gelatinous zone with repent, slender 

 (3-4 jh) hyphae imbedded, an ixocutis. No hypodermium differenti- 

 ated. Pileus trama of radially disposed hyphae. Clamp connections on 

 the hyphae of the cuticle of the pileus and stipe, and the gill trama. 

 The minute structure of the stipe is as follows: When viewed in longi- 

 tudinal section, the stipe is seen to be composed of parallel to subparal- 

 lel, vertically-disposed hyphae; when viewed in transverse section the 

 component hyphae appear as a pseudoparenchyma. On the surface 

 there are a few hyphae which may be regarded as epicuticular and 

 which at times seem to be slightly subgelatinous; these hyphae, when 

 wet, give a moist to sublubricous feel. 



Habit, Habitat, and Distribution — Gregarious under oak, beech, 

 fir, and pine, California, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Florida, Octo- 

 ber-March. 



Material Studied — California: Murrill 135 (type, from Jasper 

 Ridge, near Stanford Univ., Jan. 11, 1912), 176, Feb. 8, 1912; Pusateri 

 100; Rea 114, 392, 1172; Smith, Santa Barbara, Feb. 21, 1939, 9234, 

 9432, 55639, 55988. Florida: Hesler 21070. Michigan: Kauffman, Ann 

 Arbor, Oct. and Nov., 1926; Smith 6149, 15519. ohio: Watters 189. 

 Tennessee: Hesler 8643, 10110, 13020, 13171, 14142, 15212, 15531, 

 18865, 20065, 20628, 20759, 20761, 21616. 



Observations — The following observations on the type have been 

 recorded: Spores 6-8 X 3.5-4.5 /jl, ellipsoid, smooth, pale yellow in 

 Melzer's reagent. Basidia 28-43 X 4.5-5.5 fx. Pleurocystidia and cheilo- 

 cystidia none. Gill trama divergent. Epicutis fibrillose. Clamps present 

 on the cuticular hyphae. 



Kauffman (1918) at first considered this to be a small form of H. 

 pudorinus, but later in his notes indicated that he considered it dis- 

 tinct. The brownish to pinkish-brown virgate pilei with more or less 

 tomentose margins when young, the stature, and the densely pruinose- 



