Murrill: Dark-Spored Agarics 



65 



Stropharia irregularis Peck, Bull. Torrey Club 27 : 16. 1900. 



Pileus thin, fragile, ovoid or subcampanulate, then expanded, 

 gregarious or cespitose, 2-6 cm. broad; surface hygrophanous, 

 varying in color from white or pale-yellowish to light-brown or 

 dark-honey-yellow, fading when old and dry, usually cracking with 

 age, often radiately-wrinkled, glabrous or whitish-pulverulent, 

 rarely floccose-scaly ; margin' sometimes purplish in tint, often 

 wavy, adorned with fragments of the white, flocculent, fugacious 

 veil; context thin, white, edible, of excellent flavor; lamellae ad- 

 nate, crowded, narrow, white to purplish-brown, with the edges 

 often uneven; spores ellipsoid or ovoid, smooth, purplish-brown, 

 7-8 x 4-4.5 n; cystidia sac-shaped, 40 x 15 \x \ stipe slender, equal, 

 straight, hollow, easily splitting, white, glabrous below, pruinose or 

 slightly furfuraceous at the apex, 2.5-7 cm - l° n g> 2_ 6 mm. thick; 

 veil white, appendiculate, evanescent or rarely persisting as an 

 annulus. 



Type locality : France. 



Habitat: On and about stumps, roots, trunks, and leaves of 

 deciduous trees. 



Distribution : Temperate and tropical North America ; also in 

 Europe. 



Illustrations : Atk. Stud. Am. Fungi /. 26, 27 ; Boud. Ic. Myc. 

 1 : pi. 137; Bull. Herb. Fr. pi. 392, f. A, B, D; Bull. Conn. Geol. 

 Nat. Hist. Surv. 15 : pi 27; Bull. N. Y. State Mus. 5 : pi 58, f. 13- 

 20; Bull. U. S. Dept. Agr. 175: pi. 27, f. 2; Cooke, Brit. Fungi 

 pi 547 (587); Gill. Champ. Fr. pi. 130 (352) ; Hard, Mushr. 

 /. 262; Mem. N. Y. State Mus. 3 : pi 60, f. 1-9; Mcllv. Am. 

 Fungi pi 97a; Murrill, Ed. Pois. Mushr. f. 20; Mycologia 4: pi 

 56, f. 1, 2; N. Marsh, Mushr. Book, pi 22; Pat. Tab. Fung. 1 : 

 f. 349; Ricken, Blatterp. Deutschl. pi 64, f. 5; Sow. Engl. Fungi 

 pi 324; Trans. Wise. Acad. Sci. 17: pi 83, f. C; 18: pi. 22, 23. 



Two color forms of this common species have been figured in 

 Mycologia. It is much paler than D. madeodisca, although re- 

 sembling it in some respects. Some American mycologists have 

 been uncertain regarding its identity, but Bulliard's figures A, B, 

 and D are very clear. His figure C might be misleading, which, 

 according to him, represents a sodden condition after long rains. 

 The spores, like the plant, vary considerably. They are usually 

 ellipsoid, 7-8 x 4-4.5 /x, but may be 5.5-9 x 4-5 /x. Few mush- 

 rooms are more delicate in flavor or more easily digested. 



