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

376

The North American Species of Pholiota

but we have encountered this variation on more than one occasion and
old specimens were clearly attacked by a parasite.
MATERIAL EXAMINED: (typical specimens) CALIFORNIA: Smith
3787; MASSACHUSETTS: Peck (type of Flammula betulina, on dead
birch, from Stow, leg. S. Davis, Oct. 4, 1906); MICHIGAN: Harding
440; Hoseney 10-20-65; Kuaffman 9-16-29; Smith 5041, 14965, 20894,
33955, 34097, 35997, 38147, 38250, 43426, 44049, 58203, 67338, 67699;
NEW YORK: Smith 300; NORTH CAROLINA: (GSMNP): Hesler
10903, 17231. CANADA, ONTARIO: Smith 4433. FRANCE: Josserand
1937. SWEDEN: Fungi Sueici 2692; Hagland 424, 726. SWITZERLAND:
Favre 1948.
205. Pholiota squalida (Pk.) comb. nov.
Flammula squalida Peck, New York State Mus. Ann. Rept. 44: 131. 1891.
Gymnopilus squalidus (Pk.) Murrill, North Amer. Fl. 10: 197. 1917.
Illustrations: Text figs. 471-473.
Pileus 2.5-3.5 cm broad, convex or plane, dingy-yellowish or rufescent, viscid, glabrous. Context firm, whitish but under the separable
cuticle concolorous to pileus surface.
Lamellae adnate, pallid, becoming dark-ferruginous, rather broad,
close.
Stipe 3.5-7.5 cm long, 2-4 mm thick, pallid or brownish, subcartilaginous, at first the apex pale yellow, flexuous, fibrillose, hollow.
Spores 6-8 x 4.2-5 p., smooth, apical pore obscure under NA 1.4 obj.;
shape in face view elliptic, in profile elliptic to very obscurely inequilateral, color in KOH pale ochraceous-tawny, in Melzer's reagent about
the same; wall 0.25 Iu thick.
Basidia 18-22 x 5-6.5 pa, somewhat clavate, 4-spored, yellowish in
KOH and Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia abundant, 46-68 (76) x 9-17
pi, fusoid-ventricose, apex blunt to subacute, smooth, thin-walled, neck
filled with a plug of ~ colloidal-coagulated material but appearing
homogeneous under microscope. Caulocystidia none found.
Gill trama with a central area of subparallel floccose hyphae, yellowish to nearly hyaline in KOH; but subhymenium gelatinous of narrow
interwoven hyphae. Pileus cutis a thick pellicle; hyphae narrow (2-3 up
diam.), gelatinous, transversely creased (as revived in KOH); hypodermial region of rusty orange to orange-brown incrusted hyphae (revived in KOH), the hyphal cell 5-8 (15) px diam. Context hyphae interwoven, inflated (and often not reviving well) thin-walled smooth hyaline
to yellowish in KOH, clamp connections present. All hyphae inamyloid.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Often very caespitose on soil, in
bushy places and alder swamps, New York, September. Type studied.
OBSERVATIONS: This is very close to P. spumosa in the sense of European material but differs in the uniform color of the pileus, its whitish
flesh, slender habit and dingy appearance. Peck in describing the flesh