A monograph on the genus Galerina Earle / by Alexander H. Smith and Rolf Singer.

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8; The Genus Galerina Earle
South American species. It will be interesting to see if this correlation
between distribution and cystidial types holds when more is known about
the genus.
A very rare type is the thick-walled, encrusted (metuloid) type, as
illustrated by G. nana. The pattern of distribution for this species, however,
appears to be indefinite-the fungus is rare but seems to be collectable in
many regions, if one knows the species and its type of habitat.
Certain curiosities should also be mentioned here, such as the corkscrew type, found in G. atkinsoniana var. sphagnorum, and those dichotcmously
branched apices such as in G. thujina. The real taxonomic value of such odd
characters remains to be verified, but on the basis of what is knowr of cystidia and their constancy we feel obligated to place emphasis upon our
observations. In other genera such oddities in cystidial morphology have
been found to be constant for species or groups of species, as in certain
rough-spored species of Mycena.
A difficulty in using presence or absence of pleurocystidia as a distinguishing character results from the fact that pleurocystidia are often seen on
damaged portions of the hymenium of species where such organs are typically absent. Such cystidia always resemble the cheilocystidia in all their
characters. Insect damage is the commonest type of damage observed; it is
not clear whether the stimulation to produce such pleurocystidia is chemicals liberated by the insect or originates from the damaged hyphal cells
themselves. This tendency to produce pleurocystidia over damaged areas is
not limited to Galerina but has been observed frequently in Psilocybe as well,
by Smith; its explanation is not a matter limited to Galerina.
Sometimes two or more types of pleurocystidia are present on the gill
of a single carpophore. In Galerina the most usual pattern in this regard is
the occurrence of small cystidia (cystidioles of some authors) in addition to
the larger prominently projecting type ("true cystidia" of some terminologies). In a few instances we have given taxonomic emphasis to such a
pattern, but in general, because of the considerable range in size of?leurocystidia, both types should be present in large numbers and their size-ranges
should not overlap, if the difference is to be regarded as having meaning as
a taxonomic character. Here, again, the problem is not limited to Galerina
or even to agarics in general. A more significant difference is that involving
the occurrence of two types of pleurocystidia distinguished on the basis of
characters other than size, but this is very rarely encountered in Galer.na.
2) Cheilocystidia. As can be seen by a glance over the pages of illustrations, most of the known types of cheilocystidia found in agarics are
found in Galerina and, in addition, the genus has developed others of its
own. Thus the cheilocystidia are of great importance, but they are extremely
variable as to shape and size in many species, and therefore they must be
studied carefully and the pattern of variation thoughtfully ascertained in an
evaluation of their taxonomic importance.
The following are the major types of cheilocystidia within the genus:
a) The ventricose-capitate type: Cystidia of this type resemble in a