CLITOCYBE TRULLISATA, Ellis 
Among the mushrooms characteristic of the sandy soil of Massachu¬ 
setts, and well known especially in the eastern part of the state where col¬ 
lectors are numerous and active is the species of Clitocybe, C. trullisata, 
which is illustrated on the opposite page. In October and November one 
has only to pay a visit to almost any “old sandy field” to find this plant 
in good fruit; and if a trip be taken to the sands about Plymouth and on 
Cape Cod, to the dunes of Ipswich, or to the sandy plains farther inland, 
as near Lowell for instance, it will be found in abundance, showing its 
dull brown cap in the barrenest spots, without a green or growing thing 
about it, 'where one would really not expect to find any fungus of the sort. 
As it grows it usually looks dwarfed, as if it had n’t much of a stem. But 
this appearance is deceptive. There is a stem, long and surprisingly stout 
and swollen, but it is out of sight, deeply buried in the sand, which 
sticks to it as closely as to the root hairs of a seedling, when you pull it 
up. This stem which is a characteristic mark of the mushroom is of a 
beautiful metallic violet color, when the sand is rubbed off. The same 
color appears in it when it is broken, but is brilliant only when the plant 
is fresh, and the color is nearly or quite lost in drying. A dark violaceous 
tint appears also in the broad, rather distant gills, but this soon gives 
place to brown, without any assistance from the spores, which, it must 
be remembered, are white. The gills are extremely brittle. Brittleness, 
indeed, is a peculiar quality of the plant, increasing as it wilts and dries. 
Specimens received by mail frequently are reduced on arrival to a mass of 
fragments, easily identified. The resemblance of this Clitocybe to large 
overgrown forms of the common Clitocybe laccata (Laccaria laccala) is 
very striking and not infrequently stout specimens of the latter, especi¬ 
ally if they show violaceous tints, are easily mistaken for it. 
The following is the description of the fungus as given in the Torrey 
Bulletin in Nov., 1874, by Mr. Ellis, who found it in New Jersey. 
Pileus carnose [i. e. fleshy], plano-convex, at length depressed in the 
centre, innate-fibrose-squamose, becoming smoother in the disk, margin 
thin; gills unequal, not crowded, coarse and thick, adnate with a decur¬ 
rent tooth, at length white pulverulent, purple-violet at first, becoming 
dark brick-red; stem stuffed, fibrillose, with a long clubshaped base, 
penetrating deeply into the sand ; spores large, cylindric-oblong, .0006 
to .0008' long. 
In old sandy fields, Sept.-Oct. 
The interior of the stem in the voting plant is, like the gills, violet- 
purple, and the club shaped base is covered with a tomentose coat, to 
which the sand adheres tenaciously. Related to Clitocybe laccata Berkeley, 
and to Clitocybe ochro-furpurea Berkeley. 
Autumn is the season for this mushroom. It has been exhibited by 
the Club as early as Sept. 28th and as late as Nov. nth. It can be found 
showing its head even after the first hard frosts. 
It is an excellent mushroom to eat, but it should be gathered with care 
so as to keep it free from sand. It is best, therefore, to cut the heads off 
as they stand, and leave the stems behind. Its good qualities were first 
called to attention bv Mr. Julius A. Palmer, who used to eat of it when¬ 
ever he could, and often served a dish to his friends. 
