A monograph on the genus Galerina Earle / by Alexander H. Smith and Rolf Singer.

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36

The Genus Galerina Earle

leaving any significant traces. He noted some dermatocystidia on the pileus.
Burton (1952) from England, and Singer C3036, both obviously typical,
have conspicuously verrucose-roughened spores 13-15 X 6-8 /t which are
tawny in KOH. A nearly smooth plage was noted in some. We regard this
as the type form.
Around the type form we have observed a large number of forms differing in one or more characters. For the present we regard these as variants
in a collective species, G. heterocystis sensu lato. Some of the variants studied,
however, deserve comment.
(1) Two-spored forms. Forms with exclusively 2-3 sterigmata on a
basidium were treated by Kiihner. These had spores (11.5)13-16 X 6.7-8 JU
with very finely punctate ornamentation (almost smooth). No mention was
made of a veil but Singer (C3044 from Tirol) observed an evanescent veil on
specimens apparently exactly like Kiihner's but lacking pilocystidia. In
contrast to this, the spores of the 2-spored fruiting bodies of North American
collections are generally more distinctly warty and darker in color than
those of the 4-spored carpophores. Hesler 18046 has such heavily ornamented spores that it may represent a distinct species. Smith 48080, 2 -spored, has reddish tawny incrusting pigment, fairly numerous pilocystidia,
and spores 11-13(15) X 5-6 [/. Material from the Altai had fairly strongly
punctate spores, as in Hebeloma, which were moderately well pigmented
(melleous-brownish), and as large as in Kiihner's 2-spored form. On these
a cortina was readily visible in young specimens just as in the typical 4 -spored form. The specimens were found among mosses in an alpine meadow
at 2600-2700 m. altitude. Specimens collected in the same region it lower
altitudes were 4-spored and macroscopically identical as well as having
spores with the same type of ornamentation and measuring 11.5-13.2 X
6.5-7.5 t/.
In addition to the above 2(3)-spored forms, we frequently encounter
carpophores with mixed (1)2-(3)4-spored basidia in which the range of the
spore sizes is very wide. Such mixed forms are particularly common in
North America and Central to Southern Argentina; in subtropical and
tropical America these mixed forms usually belong to a small-spored
variant.
(2) Evelate forms. In Smith 42013 there was no veil; the carpophores
were yellow over all, and the spores (on 4-spored basidia) were nearly
smooth. This variant needs further study. The Argentine veil-less forms
come from semi-arid regions of the Northwest and West and are typically
smaller spored (see below); compare also G. dimorphocystis.
(3) Size of the carpophores. During late September and October this
species was abundant on moss under conifers along the Straits of Mackinaw
(Michigan). Here it reached the same large dimensions (pileus 15-25 mm
in diameter) reported by Singer from material on Podocarpus needles in
Northwestern Argentina. Such large fruiting bodies, incidentally, are very
readily mistaken for those of G. vexans, but the pileus does not glisten in the
same way and the stipe is not so fibrillose.
(4) Variability of the cheilocystidia. The variation in size and shape of