North American species of Mycena.

106 NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF MYCENA

cystidia, and spores. The spores are typically amyloid, as Kiihner
has stated. My first study was made not long after the specimens
had been dried and negative results were obtained. On checking
this character later in the laboratory I obtained positive results.
During the spring of 1939 the fungus was found in Washington. A
similar series of tests was made, and the amyloid reaction was found
to be very weak at first but readily demonstrable six months later.
The plate of tissue at the base of the stipe is almost the color of the
substratum and is very easy to overlook even in specimens on which
it is well developed. The spores of herbarium specimens are apt to
average smaller than those from deposits. This information is important to one who happens to have dried specimens sent to him for
identification. The pileus is so small that the usual tests for viscidity
are not reliable.
A closely related species is known from Europe-M. tubarioides
(Maire) Kiihner, Encyc. Myc., 10: 256. 1938. (Omphalia tubarioides
R. Maire, Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr., 46: 218. 1930.) Kiihner also suggests
that Mycena Typhae is merely a variety of M. tubarioides. Since
M. Tubarioides probably occurs in North America, I have included
the following condensed translation of Kiihner's description:
Pileus 2.5-5 mm. broad, convex, the margin a bit incurved at
first, becoming convex-truncate and even a bit depressed on the disc,
finally plane or with the margin elevated, obscurely grooved above
the lamellae, clear brownish red, not hygrophanous or only very
slightly so, pruinose-pubescent, then more or less glabrescent; flesh
'thin, thickish on the disc, concolorous, elastic, no odor, taste mild;
lamellae 10-11 reach the stipe, one tier of lamellulae, very distant,
concolorous with the pileus, the edge white-pruinose, broad, subhorizontal or finally subdecurrent, very broadly adnate, subtriangular,
occasionally slightly ventricose, sometimes interveined; stipe 3-6 mm.
long, 0.5-0.7 mm. thick, subequal, the base slightly thickened at times,
white-villous, not radicating, concolorous with the pileus, the apex
becoming purplish, covered over all by a white pruina, then glabrescent in the midportion, finely fistulose.
Spores very elongated and narrow, 11.5-14 X 3.5-5,, rounded
at the apex, attenuated at the base, slightly comma-shaped, amyloid;
basidia four-spored; cheilocystidia of the clavate-roughened type;
pleurocystidia not differentiated.
The fungus occurs on the remains of Scirpus in wet places.