stem three to five inches long, and a half inch or more thick. It 
grows in woods in hilly or mountainous districts, and may be 
found from July to September. It is solitary or scattered in its 
mode of growth, and not very plentiful. It retains its color 
somewhat when cooked, and in consequence, the dish of Violet 
mushrooms is scarcely as attractive to the eyes as it is to the 
palate. 
The Smeared cortinarius, C. collinitus, is much more common 
than the preceding species, and has a much wider range. As its 
name indicates, both cap and stem are covered with a viscid slime 
or gluten, which makes it disagreeable, or at least unpleasant, to 
handle. The cap is yellow, tawny-yellow, or somewhat ochra- 
ceous in color, and when the gluten on it has dried, it is very 
smooth and shining. The flesh is white or whitish. The gills 
are at first of a grayish or bluish-white hue, sometimes called 
clay-colored, but when mature they are rusty-ochraceous or cin- 
namon color. The stem is straight, solid, cylindrical, and gen- 
erally a little paler than the cap. When the gluten on it dries, it 
cracks transversely, giving the stem a peculiar, scaly appearance. 
The plant is two to five inches high, with a cap commonly one 
and a half to three inches broad. The stem is one-fourth to one- 
half an inch thick. It grows in thin woods, copses and partly- 
cleared lands, and may be found here from August to October. 
It is well to peel the caps before cooking them. The gluten 
often causes dirt and rubbish to adhere to them very tenaciously. 
The Cinnamon cortinarins, C. cinnamomeus, is a smaller spe- 
cies than either of the preceding, but much more plentiful. Its 
cap is usually one to two inches broad, its stem one to three 
inches long and about one- 
fourth of an inch thick, or a 
little less.. Its cap may he con- 
vex, plane, or furnished with 
a central prominence or umbo. 
When young, at least, it is 
coated with silky or hairy 
fibrils, and these sometimes 
are distinctly visible even in 
the mature plant. Its color is 
quite variable, but always 
some shade of yellowish ‘brown 
or cinnamon. This has suggested the name. The flesh is yellow- 
ish. The gills also are. very variable in color, but in the young 
plant they are some shade of yellow, tawny, or ochraceous, ex- 
38 
Cortinarius cinnamomeus. Clitopilus prunulus 
