North American species of Mycena.

EUMYCENA: LACTIPEDES

137

that the character is best disregarded when identifying the species.
When the plant is growing in the open, the fruiting bodies may be
short-stiped and rather strict in their bearing. When it is growing
in piles of fallen leaves around logs or stumps, the pilei are often
small and the stipes exceptionally long and flexuous. The latex is
extremely scanty and easily overlooked, particularly in small specimens. Consequently one is likely to place a collection in the wrong
section. The color change to red is also unreliable. The most useful
character is the very bitter taste. It develops slowly but remains
for a long time and causes a distinctly unpleasant sensation. The
cystidia, as Ktihner (1938) has pointed out, are also characteristic
because of their guttulate content. However, I have found specimens in which the content of the cystidia was homogeneous and
hyaline. These two characters will usually enable one to identify
any of the growth forms he may collect in either dry or wet weather.
Only the two-spored form has been found in North America.
Both it and the four-spored form occur in Europe. According to
Ktihner's interpretation, the four-spored form is usually more robust
and accounts for von Hoihnel's attempt to compare the species to the
larger fragile gray Mycenae, with which it has little in common. I
have followed Kiihner (1938) in considering M. fellea and M. cholea
synonyms of M. erubescens. The form I previously referred to
M. fellea has not been found since and is best regarded as a variation
in which the milky juice was lacking. In conversation when he visited
North America in 1939 Dr. Lange stated that M. fellea does have a
slight amount of a milklike juice. In a way the entire situation in
regard to naming this fungus is a "comedy of errors." Von Hohnel
neglected to mention the taste. This, in addition to other discrepancies in his original description, caused me to regard my specimens as
different from his. The assumption was that, if taste was not recorded, it was not specific. Lange overlooked the milky juice or
neglected to mention it, and placed M. fellea in the Filipedes. Because of this I did not refer my specimens, which possessed a distinct
latex, to his species, and ended by describing them as "new." After
I had talked with Lange all doubts about differences between M.
cholea and M. fellea were cleared up. Kuihner has apparently proceeded on the assumption that there is only one species of Mycena
with a milklike latex which has the cystidia filled with highly refractive
granules or droplets. I believe his assumption is justified until it is
definitely disproved by the discovery of additional species with these