North American species of Mycena.

238 NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF MYCENA

broad and somewhat flattened, seldom with a minute papilla in the
center, margin appressed against the stipe at first and in age often
flaring-particularly in unexpanded individuals-surface glabrous,
lubricous when wet, translucent-striate to disc when moist, the margin
often creased or crenate in age, subhygrophanous, "fuscous" to pale
watery gray with a pallid margin in young stages, usually pale watery
gray over all at maturity or sometimes the margin remaining paler,
fading to ash-gray and appearing as if pruinose; flesh gray, thin but
distinctly cartilaginous, and thus causing the pileus to be very rigid,
odor and taste mild; lamellae adnate, becoming slightly sinuate,
moderately close, 18-23 reach the stipe, narrow to moderately broad
and slightly ventricose at times (3-4 mm.), white, becoming grayish
in age but not developing reddish spots, edges even and concolorous
with the faces; stipe 3-5 (6) cm. long, 1.5-2 (3) mm. thick, equal,
strict, cartilaginous, glabrous, apex frosted from projecting cystidia,
soon polished, concolorous with the pileus or paler, apex often whitish,
base of stipe and surrounding fibrils whitish but soon becoming sordid
yellow.
Spores subellipsoid, pointed at one end, 5.5-7 (8) X 3.5-4 ~,
nonamyloid; basidia four-spored, 22-24 X 5-6 i; cheilocystidia and
pleurocystidia similar, abundant, 50-60 (90) X 10-12 (15),, subcylindric with more or less rounded apices, thin-walled, hyaline, arising
in the subhymenium; gill trama nonamyloid; pileus trama with a very
thin nongelatinous adnate pellicle, beneath it a region composed of
rather compactly arranged hyphae with vesiculose cells, the remainder
floccose-filamentous, nonamyloid; stipe tissue nonamyloid.
Habit, habitat, and distribution.-Gregarious in troops on needle
beds under Douglas fir and western red cedar and under scattered
conifers in pastures; rarely around redwood. It has been found in the
Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon and along the coast
in southern Oregon and northern California.
Material studied.-Smith, 7835, 7931, 7967, 8025, 8038, 8049,
8105, 8763, 8823, 8835, 9071, 9152, 14038, 14561, 17069, 17426, 18152.
Observations.-This species is easily recognized macroscopically
by the cartilaginous, tough consistency, the mild taste, the lutescent
hairs at the base of the stipe, the slippery feel, and the appearance of
the faded pilei. Here, as in many other gray Mycenae, the colors are
distinctive to one who has seen abundant material, even though all
the descriptions read very much alike.
The spores were first described as bluish in iodine (Smith, 1939).
These observations were made on freshly dried material. On re