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 | |
| 1. Pileus hygrophanous | 8 | |
| 1. Pileus not hygrophanous | 2 | |
| 2. Pileus gray or grayish-brown | 5 | |
| 2. Pileus some other color | 3 | |
| 3. Pileus white or whitish | 4 | |
| 3. Pileus pale tan-color | C. pascuensis | |
| 4. Pileus firm, dry, pruinate | C. prunulus | |
| 4. Pileus soft, slightly viscid when moist | C. Orcella | |
| 5. Pileus large, more than 1.5 in. broad | C. abortivus | |
| 5. Pileus small, less than 1.5 in. broad | 6 | |
| 6. Spores even | C. unitinctus | |
| 6. Spores angular | 7 | |
| 7. Stem longer than the width of the zoneless pileus | C. albogriseus | |
| 7. Stem shorter than the width of the commonly zonate pileus | C. micropus | |
| 8. Pileus brown or grayish-brown | C. subvilis | |
| 8. Pileus white or yellowish-white | C. Woodianus | |
| 9. Stem colored like the pileus | C. erythrosporus | |
| 9. Stem white, paler than the pileus | C. conissans | |
| 10. Pileus even | 11 | |
| 10. Pileus rivulose | C. Noveboracensis | |
| 11. Stems cespitose, solid | C. cæspitosus | |
| 11. Stems not cespitose, hollow | C. Seymourianus | |
| Peck, 42d Rep. N.Y. State Bot. | ||
Spores Flesh-Color.
A. Spores Even.