1899] Webster, — Notes on Fleshy Fungi 17 
colored balls, covered thickly with white of egg, rising from the leaves 
or needles. As the stem extends upward to a height of two to five 
inches, the inrolled margin of the pileus straightens out, often becoming 
wavy, and finally turns up, bringing the gills into view. The cap at the 
same time pales, only the disk retaining anything like the marked tint 
seen in the button, and the gluten hardens, leaving cap and stem dry 
and shiny, as if varnished. The flesh and rather distant gills are white, 
and the whole plant exhibits, in a marked degree, that clean, freshly- 
washed look that is peculiar to the genus. Each button preserves for 
a time intact its transparent veil, that stretches like a sheet of white of 
egg from margin to stem. Looking through this veil, you can see that 
the very top of the stem, for a half inch or so, is dry, white, and 
smoothly fibrous-striate. In this point the two species differ from 
many others in the same section in which the stem is floccose or 
granulose at the top. 
Neglecting a slight difference in the size of the spores, the descrip- 
tion of one species would. answer — except as to color — for the other. 
Doubts as to whether they are distinct are rather strengthened by the 
fact that the two occur usually together. Sometimes the association is 
so close as to suggest a mycelial connection ; but this, if existing, would 
be difficult to demonstrate. 
As found about Boston, in Lynn Woods, and along the North Shore 
from Salem to Gloucester, the two plants, however, keep their slight 
distinction well; and though they have been observed in great quanti- 
ties, no intermediate forms are known. Moreover, the mycophagists, 
for both species are edible and much sought after, note a difference 
between them yet more subtle, a distinction of flavor. The yellow spe- 
cies, they say, is sweet and delicate, whereas the smoky species has a 
slightly strong or fishy taste — for which it is by some preferred. The 
yellow one, however, is the general favorite for the chafing-dish, and is 
familiarly known in this region as the “yellow sweetbread mushroom.” 
H. fuligineus may be looked for at least by the middle of October. 
It is sometimes so abundant in its chosen spots as to be unavoidably 
crushed under foot by anyone who would pass its way, and the troops 
and patches of it give a strikingly populous aspect to the ground. 
H. flavo-discus is ten days or two weeks later in its appearance, so 
far as observed, and seems not quite so abundant as the other, nor of 
such wide distribution. Both continue until hard frost. 
A striking fact is the close association of both species with pine 
