The North American species of Psathyrella.

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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

[VOL. 24

5. Stipe (5-)8-15(-20) mm thick; many caulocystidia 40-90X6-12 Au, ventricose at
base and with very long neck. 199. P. sublateritia.
5. Stipe 2.5-5 mm thick; caulocystidia subvesiculose to clavate and up to 70 X 20 /.
200. P. conissans.
6. Spores 7-9(-10) X4-5.5 A. 198. P. spadicea.
6. Spores 5-6 A/ long. 7
7. Spores slightly broader in face than in profile view (slightly compressed),
5-5.8(-6) X 3.5-4 X 4.7(-5) fi. 201. P. naucoria.
7. Spores not compressed as seen from an end-view. 8
8. Spore deposit cocoa-reddish; pileus dull honey-brown becoming dull
cinnamon before becoming wood brown. 202. P. camptopoda.
8. Spore deposit chocolate-brown; pileus pallid when young, becoming cocoa
brown to dull vinaceous-brown. 203. P. naucorioides.
196. Psathyrella variata A.H. Smith, sp. nov.
Pileus 2-5 cm latus, late convexus, pallidus demum cacaocolor, glaber; velum
nullum; lamellae confertae, angustae, brunneolae demum cacaocolor dein vinaceobrunneae; stipes 3-6 cm longus, 3-6 mm crassus, pallidus, ad basem strigosus,
cartilaginus; sporae 8-11 (-12) X 4-5.5 (-6) I; pleurocystidia: (1) 30-60 x 8-22 t,
crassotunicata; (2) 43-60 X 9-15 I, tenuitunicata; fibulae adsunt. Typus. Smith
71092 (MICH); legit prope Priest Lake, Idaho.
Illust. Text Figs. 446-452.
Pileus 2-5 cm broad, convex expanding to broadly convex, margin incurved
at first and naked to merely hoary-pruinose, pallid to dingy cinnamon but as
spores mature developing a vinaceous tone (cocoa-color is a common intermediate
stage) and retaining a reddish cast on drying. Context thin, brittle, odor not
distinctive.
Lamellae close to crowded, narrow, more or less horizontal, pallid brownish
becoming cocoa-color to dark reddish (vinaceous) brown (near "army brown")
and retaining this color dried, edges slightly white-fimbriate.
Stipe 3-6 cm long, 3-6 mm thick, equal or nearly so, naked (or merely pruinose
above), pallid becoming dingy on aging, base somewhat strigose, tubular, consistency fairly cartilaginous.
Spores 8-11(-12) x 4-5.5(-6) t, smooth, apical pore present as only a minute
spot under high oil-immersion (N.A. 1.4), shape in face view oblong to elliptic,
varying to ovate, in profile obscurely bean-shaped to subelliptic, color in KOH
(under microscope) dingy yellowish vinaceous with a few pale cocoa-color, in
Melzer's pale dull dingy yellowish becoming pale cinnamon tinted on standing,
wall about 0.2 1 thick.
Basidia 4-spored, 17-24 x 6-8 p, clavate to cylindric (when sporulating) and
some projecting 8-12 /, hyaline to weakly brownish (in groups) in KOH. Pleurocystidia present both as lamprocystidia (30-60 x 8-22 x) and leptocystidia 43-60
x 9-15, with the longest being the narrowest, all setiform to fusoid-ventricose
in shape, mostly orginating in the subhymenium, content not distinctive in KOH
or Melzer's, mostly smooth as revived in KOH. Cheilocystidia varying from
"lamprocystidia" to "leptocystidia" and from setiform to ovate-mucronate, also
some clavate to vesiculose cells with ochraceous walls present, the walls of the
latter -0.5 [t thick. Caulocystidia as in P. sublateritia-many greatly elongated
but many different shapes present in addition-clavate, fusoid-ventricose, mucronate, elongate-fusoid, etc.; however, no thick-walled elements were observed.
Gill trama with the area next to the cellular subhymenium colored snuff
brown in KOH, the walls slightly thickened but smooth, subhymenium paler;