Psathyrella disseminata.
P. dissemina´ta Pers.—dissemino, to scatter. Found everywhere. Densely tufted. Pileus about ½ in. across, membranaceous, ovate, bell-shaped, at first scurfy, then naked, coarsely striate, margin entire, yellowish then gray. Gills adnate, narrow, whitish, then gray, finally blackish. Stem 1–1½ in. long, rather curved, mealy then smooth, fragile, hollow. Massee.
Crowded. Pileus ovate, conical, at length bell-shaped, ⅓-½ in. from the base to the apex, striate and plicate, membranaceous, pale buff or reddish-brown, at length gray, becoming flaccid and dissolving. Gills distant, narrow, pale brown. Stipes 1–3 in. long, slender, weak, brittle, crooked, hollow, pale yellowish, whitish or grayish. Particularly partial to old willow trees, and when growing on a stump of a felled tree often covering nearly a square yard. Grev.
Spores 8×6µ W.G.S.; 7.6×5µ Morgan.
West Virginia, New Jersey, Mt. Gretna, Pa., about abandoned camp. Densely tufted. May to frost. McIlvaine.
Patches of it are very common on old trunks, about decaying trees, on ground. The caps rarely reach 1 in. in diameter. The plants cook away to almost nothing, but they are of fine flavor, which they impart to the cooking medium.
GOMPHI´DIUS Fr.
A wooden bolt or nail.
Hymenophore decurrent. Gills distant, composed of a mucilaginous membrane, which can be readily separated into two plates, continuous at the edge which is acute and powdered with the blackish fusiform spores. Veil viscoso-floccose. Fleshy, putrescent, pileus at length the shape of an inverted cone.