42 CIRCULAR 143, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
PSATHYRELLA 
The species comprising the genus Psathyrella are all fragile, having 
thin membranaceous, striate caps. When young the margin of the 
cap lies against the stem, but never extends beyond the gills. 
PSATHYRELLA DISSEMINATA. (EDIBLE) 
The cap is thin, oval to bell-shaped, yellowish, gray or grayish brown, minutely 
scaly, becoming smooth, sulcate or plicate, margin entire: the gills are broad, 
adnate, white, then gray, later black; the stem is hollow, slender, fragile. 
The cap is about one-half inch broad; the stem is 1 to 114 inches long and 
1 to 1% lines thick. 
This is a delicate little species, appearing in densely cespitose clusters on 
decaying wood or about old roots of trees. It occurs from May until frost, often 
intermittently from the same center This species is edible, but has too little 
substance to render it a popular article of diet. 
Fictre 39.—Pandaeolus retiragis 
PANAEOLUS 
In the genus Panaeolus the cap is slightly fleshy and the margin 
nonstriate, always extending beyond the gills, which are gray and 
mottled from the falling of the black spores. The stem is without a 
ring and polished. The two nearest related genera are Psathyrella 
