North American species of Mycena.

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NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF MYCENA

grayish, edges even; stipe 2-3 cm. long, 1 mm. i: thick, cartilaginous,
equal, slightly strigose at the base, tubular, cartilaginous, glabrous,
glutinous or merely viscid, concolorous with the pileus or paler above.
Spores drop-shaped to subellipsoid, 6-8 (9) X 3.5-4 M, amyloid;
basidia four-spored, 28-32 X 6-7 [t; gill edges gelatinous, with clavateroughened cheilocystidia embedded in the matrix (these are often
very indistinct); no pleurocystidia; gill trama evenly floccose, subhymenium not gelatinous, purplish brown in iodine; pileus trama with
a thick separable gelatinous pellicle, the remainder homogeneous,
floccose and becoming purplish brown in iodine; stipe with a conspicuous outer layer of gelatinous hyphae, the inner portion of large
hyphae which become purplish red in iodine.
* Habit, habitat, and distribution.-Common during the late fall
on needle beds under most species of conifers, often in great quantity.
Material from Tennessee, Maryland, New York, Michigan, Colorado,
Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California in the United States and
Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Ontario in Canada has been studied.
Material studied.-Smith, 32-271, 32-469, 32-470, 32-799, 3275,
3452, 4854, 4936, 5078, 5346, 7935, 8063, 8451, 8616, 8830, 15803,
17067, Rock River, Michigan, 1929. Atkinson, New York (but not
9853). Hesler, 14235. Kanouse, August 16, 1925. Kauffman,
Maryland, Michigan, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington. Mains, 32-797, 32-799, 34-98, Michigan (two collections),
1935. Overholts, 2051. Wehmeyer, 534a.
Observations.-According to my experience, this species fruits in
cool wet weather and is often most abundant in the warmer wet
periods between heavy frosts late in November and December. In
cold years, far to the north or high in the mountains, it could reasonably be expected to fruit earlier. I have not seen it during August
in the United States. Overholts (2051) has one collection from Tolland, Colorado, dated July 27, 1914.
Murrill's description of M. melleidisca does not furnish one with
any reasonably good characters by which to distinguish the species
from M. vulgaris. During unfavorable seasons or at the end of a
very good season I have frequently found large numbers of small
fruiting bodies in which the yellowish-gray color was rather pronounced. No correlation between small size and the yellowish-gray
color, however, has been established, and these differences are here
regarded as seasonal variations. A microscopic examination of
Murrill's type failed to furnish a distinctive character. The pileus