INOCYBE Fr.
In the genus Inocybe there is a universal veil which is fibrillose in character, and more or less closely joined with the cuticle of the pileus, and the surface of the pileus is therefore marked with fibrils or is more or less scaly. Sometimes the margin of the pileus possesses remnants of a veil which is quite prominent in a few species. The gills are adnate, or sinuate, rarely decurrent, and in one species they are free. It is thus seen that the species vary widely, and there may be, after a careful study of the species, grounds for the separation of the species into several genera. One of the most remarkable species is Inocybe echinata Roth. This plant is covered with a universal veil of a sooty color and powdery in nature. The gills are reddish purple, and the stem is of the same color, the spores on white paper of a faint purplish red color. Some place in it Psalliota. Collected at Ithaca in August, 1900.
TUBARIA W. Smith.
In the genus Tubaria the spores are rust-red, or rusty brown (ferruginous or fuscous-ferruginous), the stem is somewhat cartilaginous, hollow, and, what is more important, the gills are more or less decurrent, broad next to the stem, and thus more or less triangular in outline. It is related to Naucoria and Galera, but differs in the decurrent gills. The pileus is convex, or with an umbilicus.
Tubaria pellucida Bull.—This species grows by roadsides in grassy places. The plants are from 3–4 cm. high, and the cap 1–2 cm. in diameter, and the stem 2–3 mm. in thickness.
Figure 153.—Tubaria pellucida. Dull reddish brown (natural size).
The pileus is conic, then bell-shaped, often expanded and with a slight umbo; the color is dull, reddish brown, and it has a watery appearance. The plant is sometimes enveloped with a loose and delicate universal or outer veil, which remains on the margin of the cap in the form of silky squamules as shown in the figure. The margin of the pileus is faintly striate. The gills are only slightly decurrent. Figure [153] is from plants (No. 2360 C. U. herbarium) collected along a street in Ithaca.
The stem is at first solid, becoming hollow, tapering above, and the apex is mealy.