290 



Mycologia 



the Adirondacks and elsewhere. Insects are very fond of it. 

 When dried, specimens become so much paler that they are hardly 

 recognizable. 



Pholiota squarrosoides Peck 

 Sharp-scale Pholiota 



Plate 13. Figure 2. X i 



Pileus fleshy, firm, subglobose when young, at length convex, 

 usually densely cespitose, 3-10 cm. broad; surface whitish, viscid 

 when moist, adorned with erect, pointed, terete, tawny scales 

 more abundant on the disk ; context white, rather thick, edible ; 

 lamellae adnate or arcuate, often sinuate with age, rather narrow, 

 crowded, whitish, becoming brownish-ferruginous ; spores short- 

 ellipsoid to ovoid, smooth, rusty-brown, 5-5.5 X 2.5-3.5 /^t; cystidia 

 scattered, about 30^0, long, obtuse at the apex; stipe equal, solid 

 or stufifed, smooth and white above, rough below with numerous 

 recurved, tawny scales ; annulus floccose, lacerate. 



This species was carefully studied by Dr. Peck in the Adiron- 

 dacks, where he found it growing in clusters on dead logs and 

 stumps of the sugar maple, and more rarely on beech and a few 

 other deciduous trees. According to him, the flesh is firm and of 

 excellent flavor. Prof. Hard found it in Ohio late in the fall, 

 reporting it as especially frequenting hollow stumps and logs of 

 the sugar maple. Dr. Kaufifman reports it as frequent in certain 

 parts of Michigan, occurring in very dense clusters on living 

 trunks of maple, birch, and beech, as well as on dead logs and 

 stumps of various deciduous trees. 



According to Dr. Peck, it may be distinguished from the Euro- 

 pean species, Pholiota squarrosa Miill., by its "viscid pileus, its 

 compact, erect, pointed scales, its sinuate lamellae and its brown- 

 ish ferruginous spores." He reports P. squarrosa as not very 

 common, occurring in dense tufts on dead wood in August and 

 September. 



According to Dr. Kauffman, Pholiota squarrosa differs from 

 P. squarrosoides in the " color of the young gills, the disagreeable 

 odor, the yellow flesh, the crocus-yellow or tawny color, and the 

 larger, smoother spores." 



I have a young specimen from Redding, Connecticut, collected 



