The North American species of Psathyrella.

1972]

PSATHYRELLA

191

glabrous, hygrophanous, umber "(h 2)" when moist, when faded whitish yellow
"(3 5)" with deep ocher yellow disc when faded, when partly faded with a dark
zone around the margin, smooth or sometimes minutely wrinkled, when moist
translucent striate inward for 2-3 mm, margin often rusty ochraceous "(g 2)."
Context 1-1.5 mm in the disc, whitish, in the pileus nearly concolorous with
surface except for a dark watery line above the gills, in the interior of the stipe
more or less fulvous; odor unpleasant (soap-like or like that of Tricholoma
saponaceum), taste not distinctive.
Lamellae at first a beautiful pallid eye-blue "(0 4)" and forming a strong
contrast to the rusty margin of the cap, at length blackish, broad (4 mm), more
or less ascending, broadly adnate, subdecurrent, crowded, the margin slightly
concave and strongly white-floccose.
Stipe 2.5-5 cm long, 1.5-2 mm thick, pure white, equal or evenly thickened
downward, often with a waxy surface, flexuous, with a silky sheen, smooth, base
without setulae, rooting, apex with very fugaceous white flocci (from outer veil)
when young, stiff, fistulose.
Spores 12-13x6.5-7.5 1, oval, with indistinct germ pore; black brownish
(M6ller). Spore powder black. Basidia 4-spored, 20-24x11-12 t. Cystidia at
gill edge, 28-42 x 10-13 A, utriform or nearly so, 6-7 / wide at apex.
Type locality. Stromo, Faeroes.
Habit and habitat. On naked manured garden-bed soil, gregarious, rarely
subcespitose, July.
Distribution. The Faeroes.
Observations. No material of this species has been studied. The above account
is adapted from M6ller's description. It is included here on the expectation that
the species will be found in the subarctic region of eastern Canada.
149. Psathyrella brooksii A. H. Smith, sp. nov.
Pileus 1-2 cm latus, campanulatus vel convexus, sparse squamulosus, glabrescens, cinnamomeo-brunneus; lamellae latae, subdistantes, fusco-brunneae; stipes
3-4 cm longus, circa 1 mm crassus, floccoso-fibrillosus; sporae 12-15x 7-9 pt;
pleurocystidia 40-62 x 10-18 /t, subclavata, elliptica vel late fusoide ventricosa;
fibulae adsunt. Typus. Brooks 1594 (MICH); legit prope Edwards County,
Kansas.
Illust. Text Figs. 334-336, 338.
Pileus obtusely campanulate to convex, the scattered patches of outer veil
material remaining longest near the margin, surface moist and hygrophanous,
apparently dingy cinnamon-brown when moist and fading to dingy tan, when
dried dull grayish cinnamon. Context thin and fragile, odor and taste not
recorded.
Lamellae broad, bluntly adnate, subdistant, chocolate-brown as dried but with
the edges white and minutely fimbriate.
Stipe 3-4 cm long, about 1 mm (or slightly more) thick, equal, mycelioid at
the base, dull brownish as dried but still with adhering flecks of fibrils from the
outer veil.
Spores 12-15 x 7-9 g, smooth, apical pore distinct and apex somewhat truncate
(see immature, pale-colored spores), shape in face view ovate to elliptic, in profile
subelliptic to obscurely inequilateral, color in KOH at first dark rusty brown
becoming "mummy brown" to darker, in Melzer's bay to bay-brown, wall 0.8-1 /
thick.