The North American species of Pholiota, by Alexander H. Smith and L. R. Hesler.

Smith ~ Hesler

139

furnished with a pseudorhiza........................................ P. silvatica
1. Stipe not radicating and a double veil not evident............ P. aberrans
66. Pholiota silvatica (Smith) comb. nov.
Stropharia silvatica Smith, Contr. Univ. Mich. Herb. No. 5, p. 65, 1941.
Illustrations: Ibid, pl. 22.
Pileus 2-4 cm broad, obtuse, margin incurved slightly at first, becoming plane or with an obtuse umbo, the margin at first decorated with
veil fragments, glabrous otherwise, viscid to glutinous, evenly "amber
brown" to "argus brown" in buttons, soon fading to "amber yellow"
along the margin and in age only the disc or umbo amber brown, the
remainder "chamois" (pale yellow), not translucent striate at any time.
Context concolorous with the surface, watery, moderately thin and pliant,
odor and taste mild.
Lamellae adnate with a tooth and readily seceding, ventricose and
broad (5-6 mm), close, 27-30 reach the stipe, 2-3 tiers of lamellulae,
white when young, becoming "deep olive buff" and finally "Saccardo's
umber" (dark yellow-brown) in age, edges even.
Stipe 8-16 cm long, 3-5 mm thick, equal above a long (4-6 cm)
pseudorhiza, solid or with a narrow tubule, viscid over the lower twothirds and sordid honey-yellow, upper part whitish but becoming pale
yellow, a thin white inner fibrillose veil present beneath the glutinous
veil; annular zone apical, evanescent; below the annular zone often more
or less concentrically zoned from the drying gluten.
Spore deposit on stipe apex dull tawny; spores 10-13 X 5.5-7.5,u,
oval to elliptic in face view, in profile subelliptic to obscurely inequilateral, smooth, slightly truncate from a distinct apical germ pore, rusty
cinnamon as revived in KOH, greenish-yellow in H20 mounts fresh,
pale tawny in Melzer's reagent, wall 0.25-0.4,I thick (estimated).
Basidia 30-35 x 8-10 u, subclavate to cylindric, 4-spored, yellowishhyaline in KOH and in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia abundant,
34-42 X 10-12 Iu, clavate to broadly fusoid-ventricose to clavate-mucronate, apex subacute to obtuse, often with a highly refractive content in
KOH (content typically yellowish and in lower half of cell-not an
isolated clearly defined mass as in true chrysocystidia), some filamentose
pseudocystidia 30-40 X 7-11 IL also present and with ochraceous content
as revived in KOH. Cheilocystidia abundant, 28-36 X 10-14,u, clavate
to somewhat fusoid-ventricose, apex usually rounded, some with refractive
content as revived in KOH. Caulocystidia abundant, often in clusters,
30-60 x 9-18 fI, utriform to clavate, hyaline in KOH, walls thin, content
homogeneous; stipe hyphae hyaline in KOH and thin-walled, smooth.
Gill trama parallel to somewhat interwoven, non-gelatinous hyphae
with tawny to ochraceous walls in KOH, walls thin and smooth; subhymenium a narrow region becoming gelatinous in KOH or remaining
indistinct. Pileus cutis a gelatinous layer, the hyphae tangled loosely as