The North American species of Psathyrella.

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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

[VOL. 24

13. Spores truncate (flattened at apex). 14
13. Spores not truncate. 15
14. Stipe whitish; caulocystidia present merely as clavate end cells. 392. P. limicola.
14. Stipe brownish below; caulocystidia clavate, vesiculose and fusoid ventricose,
numerous. 393. P. warrenensis.
15. Cuticle of pileus 2-3 cells deep. 394. P. griseopallida.
15. Cuticle of pileus 1(-2) cells deep. 16
16. Lamellae cinnamon brown at maturity; cap margin becoming sulcate upon loss
of moisture. 392a. P. limicola var. subpectinata.
16. Lamellae grayish brown to brownish-violaceous at maturity; pilear margin not
sulcate. 395. P. pseudocoronata.
380. Psathyrella texensis A. H. Smith, sp. nov.
Pileus 1.5-3 cm latus, late convexus, spadiceus, glaber, sapor farinaceus; odor
farinaceus; lamellae angustae, demum subdistantes, violaceo-brunneae; stipes
2.5-3.5 cm longus, 3-5 mm crassus, pallidus, deorsum demum subalutaceus;
glaber; velum nullum; sporae 9-11 x 4.5-6,; pleurocystidia 25-37 x 8-13,u, late
fusoide ventricosa, obtusa; fibulae adsunt. Typus. Thiers 1486 (MICH); legit
prope Richards, Texas.
Illust. Text fig. 798.
Pileus 1.5-3 cm broad when fully expanded; convex when young, becoming
broadly convex to plano-convex when mature; colored near "Dresden brown"
when young but fading to "buckthorn brown" to "ochraceous-buff" when older;
surface dry, glabrous, showing no evidence of a veil; margin obscurely striate,
incurved when young, becoming nearly straight to uplifted when mature, entire,
in age at times eroded. Context thin, brittle, concolorous with the surface, taste
disagreeable (oily-farinaceous), odor farinaceous.
Lamellae ascending adnate; narrow, close to subdistant; colored near "benzo
brown" to "cinnamon-drab" to "brownish drab," 2-3 tiers of lamellulae, margin
entire and concolorous with the faces.
Stipe 2.5-3.5 cm long, 3-5 mm broad at the apex, white at the apex but lower
down becoming near "cinnamon-buff," equal to tapering slightly upward, dry,
glabrous, solid; no evidence of a veil.
Spores 9-11x 4.5-6 /, smooth, truncate from a distinct apical pore, shape in
face view subovate to elliptic, in profile subelliptic to obscurely inequilateral, color
in KOH quickly chocolate-brown, in Melzer's dark reddish tawny, wall about
0.4 /u thick.
Basidia 4-spored, 20-27 x8-12 /u, clavate. Pleurocystidia 25-37 x 8-13 /,
broadly fusoid ventricose with obtuse apex, wall thin (cells not reviving well),
hyaline. Cheilocystidia 24-37 x 8-12 /, numerous, fusoid-ventricose to subcylindric
hyaline, thin-walled and smooth.
Gill trama of interwoven filamentous hyphae, yellowish hyaline in KOH,
subhymenium not distinctive. Pileus cuticle composed of a layer 1-2 cells deep,
the cells vesiculose but angular from being compacted, hyaline in KOH. Clamps
present.
Type locality. Near Richards, Grimes County, Texas.
Habit and habitat. Gregarious in humus at base of dead stumps in mixed
woods.
Distribution. Texas.
Observations. KOH gave no distinctive reaction on either the lamellar or pilear
trama.