(ABORTED) (SECTION),
=CLITOPI´LUS= Fr.
_Gr_—a declivity; _Gr_—a cap.
(Plate LXIV.)
[Illustration:
CLITOPILUS PRUNULUS.
One-third natural size.
]
=Pileus= more or less excentric or regular, margin at first involute.
=Gills= more or less decurrent, never sinuate nor seceding from the
stem, salmon-color. =Stem= fleshy or fibrous, not polished and
cartilaginous externally, central, expanded upward into the flesh of the
pileus. =Spores= smooth or warted.
Closely resembling Eccilia, differing mostly in the stem not being
cartilaginous at the surface. Distinguished from Entoloma by the gills
not being sinuate.
Agrees in structure with Clitocybe in the Leucosporæ. _Massee._
Growing on the ground, often strong smelling. Caps usually depressed or
umbilicate and waved on margin.
Some of the best of edible kinds are within this genus; a few are
unpleasant raw, none poisonous.
Most authors follow Fries in the arrangement of the species, dividing
them into two groups, the Orcelli, distinguished by deeply decurrent
gills and an irregular, scarcely hygrophanous pileus, with the margin at
first flocculose; and Sericelli, distinguished by adnate or slightly
decurrent gills and a regular silky or hygrophanous-silky pileus with a
naked margin. This arrangement is not strictly applicable to some of our
species. C. abortivus, C. erythrosporus and C. Noveaboracensis have the
gills deeply decurrent in some individuals, adnate or slightly decurrent
in others, and therefore the same species might be sought in both
groups. For this reason the primary grouping of our species has been
made to depend upon the variation in the spore colors. By far the
greater number of our species appear to be peculiar to this country,
only two of them occurring also in Europe.
ANALYSIS OF SPECIES.
Spores and mature gills flesh-colored 1
Spores and mature gills rosy-red 9
Spores very pale flesh-colored 10