36 BULLETIN N. Y. STATE MUSEUM. 



The bright color and regular bifurcations of the lamellae render this 

 a beautiful and easily recognizable species. The pileus is somewhat 

 obconic in outline, but it is subject to some variation in color. The 

 disk is often tinged with brown or smoky-brown and sometimes the 

 whole surface fades to a dingy buff-red. The margin is sometimes 

 a pale yellow or even whitish, and a form with whitish lamella? has 

 occurred in a sphagnous marsh near Albany. In the European plant 

 the stem is said occasionally to become black. This form is Merulius 

 nigvipes Pers. The wholly white European form has not been found 

 here. 



The species is pronounced "poisonous" by some authors, and 

 11 scarcely esculent" by Rev. M. J. Berkeley. It is especially fond 

 of a damp mossy soil tilled with vegetable mold, and it sometimes 

 occurs quite late in the season. 



Gantharellus umbonatus Fr. 



Umbonate Chantarelle. 



Pileus thin, soft, at first convex, then plane or centrally depressed, 

 umbonate, papillate or even, smooth or flocculose-silky, rarely mi- 

 nutely squamulose, bluish-cinereous, grayish-brown or blackish-cin- 

 ereous, the flesh white ; lamellae thin, straight, more or less decur- 

 rent, dichotomous, white : stem equal or slightly tapering upward, 

 solid or stuffed, generally slightly silky, villose or white-tomentose 

 at the base, whitish or tinged with the color of the pileus ; spores 

 white, oblong or subfusiform, .0004 to .0005 in. long, .00016 to 

 .0002 broad. 



Plant 1 to 6 in. high, pileus 6 to 12 lines broad, stem 2 to 4 lines 

 thick. 



Damp, mossy ground in woods and open places. North Elba, 

 Catskill mountains and Karner. August to October. 



Var. subcceruleus. Pileus bluish or bluish-gray, silky and shining. 



Var. dichotomus. Pileus even or the umbo reduced to a mere 

 papilla, grayish-brown. 



Var. brevior. Pileus as in variety dichotomus, but the stem very 

 short, about 1 inch long, equal and scarcely silk}'. 



This is a variable species. All the descriptions of the European 

 plant which have come under my notice speak of it as umbonate, 

 and some emphasize this character and describe it as "always per- 

 sistent," " unchanged," etc. In the American plant it is often en- 

 tirely absent, and when present it is generally a mere acute papilla. 



