THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 95 
to Marasmius rcsinosa that I have ever seen. It is called Pholiota 
mycenoides. Stevenson describes it on page 237. I found it in 
a clay bank, near a spring. The soil was soaking wet from re- 
cent rains, and these tiny mushrooms (there were only a few to 
be seen) were glistening with moisture. The caps measured 
about a quarter of an inch to one-half inch across, but were re- 
markable for the large white ring like a collar, that was around 
the top of the stem, concealing the gills. The color of the bell- 
shaped and striate caps was a bright reddish-brown, but some 
were paler in color. The stems were only one inch long, smooth 
and a little paler than the caps. The name denotes their resem- 
blance toMyccjia, but the genus Myccna has no ring. The color 
of the ring was white and considering the small size of the mush- 
room, it was large and conspicuous. It reminded one of Queen 
Elizabeth's ruff. Stevenson calls it a remarkable species found 
in damp dells, which exactly describes its habitat. I do not be- 
lieve that many of us have found such a tiny Pholiota. 
The next mushroom on my list is Coprimes tomentostts. The 
specimens we found were beautiful. The caps were covered with 
a white woolly substance, which came away easily when handled, 
showing the pale mouse grey color beneath. The plants were 
small and grew on manure in a grassy place. The caps were coni- 
cal, about one and one-half inches high and the gills were brown. 
Our collection of mushrooms was not confined to Agarics. We 
found a species of Xylaria, X. corniformis, which resembled a 
roughened black club in shape. It belonged to the class of As- 
comycetes or spore-sac fungi. We have often met with Xylaria 
polyrnorpha, but X. corniformis seems to be less abundant. There 
is another of the Ascomycetes that we saw several times, but later 
in the season. It is named Cordyceps militaris. It looks like a 
Clavaria, but one can see with the help of a hand lens, the orange- 
colored perethecia imbedded in the club shaped head. 
Cordyceps is a genus that becomes parasitic either on insects or 
on some subterranean fungi. It often grows on moths, buried 
beneath dead leaves, the club rising above the surface. It may 
sometimes be seen in conidial stage and looks" like a small white 
plume. Not far from the grassy place where I found the little 
