North American species of Mycena.

GLUTINIPES: VISCOSAE

427

Lake Quinault, Washington; Mt. Hood, Oregon. Mains, 392-415,
34-193. Morse, January 7, 1934, California.
Observations.-The outstanding characters of this species are the
faint odor (or lack of odor), mild taste, bright yellow stipe, greenishto brownish-yellow cap, which becomes whitish to grayish or tinged
incarnate, and lack of reddish stains on gills and cap. Lange (1936)
described the cap as "livid brownish to livid white." "Livid white"
characterizes the faded pilei very well. My material was anything
but livid brownish when fresh. An examination of Lange's illustration at once makes it apparent, however, that no real discrepancy
existed between the color of my specimens when they were fresh and
the color of those from Denmark. Yellow is the dominant color in
his illustration, which, when it is matched with Ridgway, is found
to be remarkably close to "old gold."
An examination of the type of M. paludicola Murrill shows that
it is unquestionably M. epipterygia. Its spores measure 9-11 X
5-6 u and are smooth, hyaline, ellipsoid, and amyloid. Its basidia
are four-spored, and the cheilocystidia gelatinize, producing the
characteristic inflated gill edge. In Murrill's specimens the cheilocystidia have gelatinized to such an extent that their outlines are very
indistinct. This frequently happens in old specimens of M. epipterygia. No pleurocystidia are differentiated. The pileus trama is
covered with the remains of a viscid pellicle. This layer was overlooked in my first examination of the type but has since been clearly
observed. Its hyphae have almost completely gelatinized, and its
real thickness could be observed in only one or two sections. The
stipe possessed similar remnants of gelatinous hyphae. The iodine
reactions of the flesh of the pileus, gills, and stipe were a bit weaker
than those of typical M. epipterygia, but still definitely amyloid.
After collecting and studying large quantities of this species from
the pine forests along the ocean in Oregon and California in 1935 and
1937, I was able to recognize Murrill's "species" as merely old fruiting
bodies of M. epipterygia. The telltale characters are the white apex
and the yellow base of the stipe, the white margin of the pileus, its
pale avellaneous tint elsewhere, and the viscidity of both the pileus
and the stipe. I have observed hundreds of carpophores all of
them old-with these characters. Murrill's concept of M. epipterygia
was apparently based on the form which is common on conifer logs
in the eastern United States. In the West the almost continual rain