lling spores.

Most authorities divide the genus into six tribes, from the appearance
of the pileus. They are as follows:

I. Phlegmacium, meaning a shiny or clammy moisture. The pileus has a
continuous pellicle, viscid when moist, stem dry, veil spider-webby.

II. Myxacium, meaning mucus, slime; so called from the glutinous veil.
The pileus is fleshy, glutinous, rather thin; the gills are attached to
the stem, slightly decurrent; the stem is viscid, polished when dry,
slightly bulbous.

III. Inoloma, meaning a fibrous fringe; from _is_, genitive _inos_, a
fibre; and _loma_, a fringe.

The pileus is fleshy, dry, not hygrophanous or viscid, silky with innate
scales; the gills may be violaceous, pinkish-brown, yellow at first,
then in all cases cinnamon-color from the spores; the stem is fleshy and
somewhat bulbous; veil simple.

IV. Dermocybe, meaning a skinhead; from _derma_, skin, and _cybe_, a
head.

The pileus thin and fleshy, entirely dry, at first clothed with silky
down, becoming smooth in mature plants. The gills are changeable in
color. The stem is equal or tapering downward, stuffed, sometimes
hollow, smooth.

V. Telamonia, meaning a bandage or lint. The pileus is moist, watery,
smooth or sprinkled with whitish superficial fibres, the remnants of the
web-like veil. The flesh is thin, somewhat thicker at the center. The
stem is ringed and frequently scaly from the universal veil, slightly
veiled at the apex, hence almost with a double veil. The plants are
usually quite large.

VI. Hydrocybe, meaning water-head or moist head. The pileus is moist,
not viscid, smooth or sprinkled with a whitish superficial fibril, flesh
changing color when dry, and rather thin. The stem is somewhat rigid and
bare. Veil thin, fibrillose, rarely forming a ring. Gills also thin.

TRIBE I. PHLEGMACIUM.

_Cortinarius purpurascens. Fr._

THE PURPLISH CORTINARIUS. EDIBLE.

Purpurascens means becoming purple or purplish; so named because the
blue gills become purple when bruised.

The pileus is four to five inches broad, bay-brown, viscid, compact,
wavy, spotted when old; often depressed at the margin, sometimes bending
back; the flesh blue.

The gills are broadly notched, crowded, bluish-tan, then cinnamon-color,
becoming purplish when bruised.

The stem is solid, bulbous, clothed with small fibres, blue, very
compact, juicy; becoming purplish when rubbed. The spores are
elliptical, 10-12x5-6u.

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