North American species of Mycena.

EUMYCENA: CORTICOLAE

75

at first covered with a powdery bloom but soon polished, the base
surrounded by a mass of white-strigose filaments or echinulate with
white hairs radiating from the point of attachment, not rooting,
occasionally the base stained sordid purplish brown in age.
Spores (7) 8-10 X 5-6 u, broadly ellipsoid, smooth, amyloid;
basidia four-spored; pleurocystidia not differentiated; cheilocystidia
(30) 40-64 X 10-18 y, fusoid-ventricose with obtuse apices or clavate,
some abruptly ventricose with a long-drawn-out neck, smooth; gill
trama homogeneous, pale vinaceous brown in iodine; pileus trama
with a thin adnate pellicle, a well-defined hypoderm and the remainder
filamentous, vinaceous brown in iodine.
Habit, habitat, and distribution.-Single to gregarious on dead
sticks, branches, or trunks of coniferous trees, particularly cedar;
occasionally on alder and tanbark oak; California, Oregon, and Washington. Rather common during the wet fall season, rare during the
spring in 1939 in Washington. The type was collected on twigs of
Port Orford cedar, but the species is frequently found on western red
cedar also.
Material studied.-Smith, 2512, 2550, 3351, 3514, 3532, 3612, 3643,
3742, 3755, 7774, 8174, 8179, 8473, 9096, 16496, 18177; November 19,
1935, Oregon. Kauffman, 1925, Washington.
Observations.-I originally identified this fungus as M. brevipes
Murr. (for an account of which see page 396). The characters of
M. subcana are the typically short stipe and rather broad pileus, the
habit on sticks, branches, and trunks that are usually above the forest
floor, its broadly ellipsoid spores, lack of pleurocystidia, and lack of
any distinctive odor or taste. It has been difficult to arrive at conclusions in regard to this species. It appears to be just another
fragile gray Mycena of the M. leptocephala type, but it does not seem
to be referable to either M. leptocephala or M. stannea. During three
seasons of collecting along the Pacific coast I recognized it readily.
In many of its characters it is similar to M. fragillima, but the structure of the pileus in the two is different, and there is a distinct difference in habit and habitat as well as in consistency. I have compared
collections of fresh specimens of both. M. fragillima tends to have
a delicately pubescent stipe at first and the stature of M. filopes.
The stipe of M. subcana is merely frosted, and the stature is decidedly
squatty, a character, which, along with the habitat, has led me to
place the fungus in the Corticolae. When growing from branches
that are heavily covered with Bryophytes, M. subcana does develop