because it is common and often even abundant it is described for 
the benefit of those who may desire to use it. 
Its cap is very thin, convex or nearly plain, smooth or with a 
slight scurfy roughness, sometimes with a small central depres- 
sion or umbilicus, and when moist with a water-soaked appear- 
ance, by the drying out of which moisture the color fades very 
decidedly. When moist the color is a peculiar buff-red, dull red 
or flesh-red, but when dry it assumes a kind of grayish or pale. 
ochraceous hue. ‘The gills are broad, rather wide apart and at- 
tached to the stem by their entire width. Sometimes they run 
downwards a little on the stem and occasionally they have the 
edge slightly excavated next the stem, contrary to the rule in this 
genus. They have a peculiar pale flesh-color which is more per- 
sistent than the color of the cap, and which is one of the most 
characteristic features of the species. They are apt to become 
dusted with the white spores when mature. The stem is rather 
long and slender, having a fibrous appearance externally and be- 
ing stuffed or almost hollow within. There are many varieties. 
In one, the moist cap is much darker than in the typical form, 
and when dry much paler, but the gills have a beautiful deep 
violaceous and quite persistent color. This has been called va- 
riety amethystina. In another the gills are unusually pale, fad- 
ing almost to whitish. This is variety pallidifolia. In a small 
form growing in wet or damp places the moist cap is smooth and 
so thin that it shows shadowy radiating lines extending from near 
the centre to the margin. This is variety striatula. 
As usual, such a variable species is not at all particular as to 
its place of growth, but may be found in woods, swamps or fields, 
growing on naked soil or among grass, mosses or fallen leaves. 
It is especially fond of growing in pine woods or groves. It may 
be found from the beginning to the end of the season if the 
weather is not too dry. It usually grows in groups or flocks and 
makes up in numbers what it lacks in size. The cap varies from 
half an inch to two inches broad, the stem from one to three 
inches long and one to three lines thick. 
There is a closely related but much larger mushroom, Clitocybe 
ochropurpurea, in which the cap is generally paler and the gills 
brighter in color, having a purplish tint. It has a comparatively 
shorter and thicker stem and the whole plant is apt to be more 
irregular and deformed and the gills transversely torn. This is 
not known to be edible. 
The Rooting mushroom, Collybia radicata, belongs to a closely 
related genus of white-spored agarics and is recorded as edible, 
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