Agaricaceee 



Hygrophorus. In pastures. Stevenson. 

 Spores 8x5/4 Cooke. 



Edible. Cooke. No harm would come of confusing it with the ver- 

 milion mushroom H. miniatus Pk. 



H. COn'icilS Fr. conical. Pileus thin, submembranaceous, fragile, 

 smooth, conical, generally acute, sometimes obtuse, the margin often 

 lobed. Gills rather close and broad, subventricose, narrower toward 

 the stem, free, terminating in an abrupt tooth at the outer extremity, 

 scarcely reaching the margin, yellow. Stem equal, fibrous-striate, yel- 

 low, hollow. 



Height 3-6 in., breadth of pileus 612 lines. Stem 1-2 lines thick. 



Ground in woods and open places. North Elba and Center. August 

 to October. 



The color of the pileus is variable. I have taken specimens with it 

 pale sulphur-yellow and others with it bright red or scarlet. The plant 

 turns black in drying. Peck, Rep. 23, New York State Bot. 



Spores lOx/ju. Cooke; iox6/A Morgan. 



An old-time cure-all had medicinal virtues proportionate to its offen- 

 siveness. Old-time writers, contrariwise, gave every toadstool a bad 

 name which changed color or displeased their noses. The pretty little 

 Hygrophorus conicus, for these reasons, has, until now, been under the 

 ban of suspicion. M. C. Cooke, in his handy book, Edible and Poison- 

 ous Mushrooms, was the first to lighten its sentence and make it a sort 

 of ticket-of-leave culprit. 



The writer has frequently eaten it, and is glad to vouch for its harm- 

 lessness and testify to its eminent respectability. 



H. cllloroph'anus Fr. Gr. greenish-yellow. PileilS I in. broad, 

 commonly bright sulphur-yellow, sometimes, however, scarlet, not 

 changing color, somewhat membranaceous, very fragile, at first convex, 

 then plane, obtuse, orbicular and lobed, and at length cracked, smooth, 

 viscid, striate. Stem 2-3 in. long, 2-3 lines thick, hollow, equal, 

 round, rarely compressed, wholly even, smooth, viscid when moist, 

 shining when dry, wholly unicolorous, rich light yellow. Gills emar- 

 ginato-adnexed, very ventricose, with a thin decurrent tooth, thin, dis- 

 tant, distinct. Fries. 



Very much allied to H. conicus, but never becoming black, and other- 



160 



