480 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters . 
Pholiota dura, (Bolt.). PL XXIX. 
HARD PHOLIOTA. 
Pholiota dura is very similar to Pholiota praecox, but the 
plants are heavier with a shorter, thicker, more irregular stem 
and the pileus tends to crack into areas. The two are found in 
similar localities, though Pholiota dura prefers gardens and 
fields, Pholiota praecox grassy plaices. 
The plants pictured were found in a garden bed in June. 
They are mature and the pilei are well expanded. M. E. Hard,, 
Mushrooms Edible and Otherwise p. 259 gives a good photo¬ 
graph of younger plants showing the incurved pileus with a 
rimose areolate surface. In our plants there are striations on 
the stem above the annulus like those on the stem of Pholiota 
vermiflua. 
Pileus firm, fleshy, smooth or cracked into areas, margin in¬ 
curved when young becoming convex or expanded, obtuse, even 
on the margin, yellowish tawny or tan color, becoming darker. 
Flesh firm, brittle, white, mild. Lamellae ventricose, ad- 
nexed, with a slight sinus and a striate decurrent tooth, whitish, 
becoming the color of the spores. Stem stuffed or solid, even, 
tapering downward, more or less ventricose, fibrous, widening 
to the pileus, whitish. Annulus thin and fragile, entire or 
tom. Spores rusty brown, 5—6x8—9 p. 
Note. The two following species described by Peck appear to belong 
to the praecox-dura type. 
Pholiota duroides, Pk. N. Y. State Mus. Bull. 122 p. 148. It is 
separated from Pholiota dura by its more ochraceous pileus, softer 
substance and smaller spores, 4—5x6—7/*. 
Pholiota mollicula Bann. and Pk., N. Y. State Mus. Rep’t 44 p. 70, 
is a plant of the same character. It has a whitish pileus with the 
disk yellowish, gills whitish becoming cinnamon, stem white, stuffed 
or hollow, annulus large and white and spores rusty 5x8/*. Growing in 
woods at the roots of trees. 
This large number of species shows the great variability of 
the praecox-dura type of Pholiota. Mbre forms might be dis¬ 
tinguished for plants are often collected that do not agree ex- 
