closer
than in the Fairy Ring, hardly reaching the stem proper, joined behind.

The stem is solid above and hollow below, fibrous, pale, its surface
more or less covered with flocculent down, and densely covered with
white down at the base.

It will be well for collectors to pass by this and M. peronatus, or to
exercise the greatest caution in their use. They have been eaten without
harm, but they also have so long been branded as poisonous that too
great care cannot be taken. Its taste is acrid, and it grows in lawns
and pastures from June to September.

_Marasmius androsaceus. Linn._

[Illustration: Figure 103.--Marasmius androsaceus. Natural size.]

Androsaceus is from a Greek word which means an unidentified sea plant
or zoophyte.

The pileus is three to six lines broad, membranaceous, convex, with a
slight depression, pale-reddish, darker in the center, striate, smooth.

The gills are attached to the stem, frequently quite simple and few in
number, about fifteen, with shorter ones between, sometimes forked,
whitish.

The stem is one to two inches long, horny, filiform, hollow, quite
smooth, black, often twisted when dry. The spores are 7x3-4u.

This is a very attractive little plant found on the leaves in the woods
after a rain. They are quite abundant. Found from July to October.

_Marasmius foetidus. Sow._

[Illustration: Figure 104.--Marasmius foetidus.]

Foetidus means stinking or foetid.

The pileus is submembranaceous, tough, convex, then expanded, umbilicate
striato-plicate, turning pale when dry, subpruinose.

The gills are annulato-adnexed, distant, rufescent with a yellow tinge.

The stem is hollow, minutely velvety, bay, base flocculose.

The caps are light brownish-red in color, fading when dry. When fresh it
has a foetid odor quite perceptible for such small plants. It is found
on decayed sticks and leaves in woods. During wet weather or after heavy
rains it is quite common in the woods about Chillicothe.

Found from July to October.

This is also called Heliomyces foetens (Pat.) and is so classified by
Prof. Morgan in his very excellent Monogram on North American Species of
Marasmius.

_Marasmius velutipes. B. & C._

[Illustration: Figure 105.--Marasmius velutipes.]

Velutipes means velvet-footed, from the velvety stem. The pileus is
thin, submembranaceous, smooth, convex, or expanded, grayish-rufous when
moist, cinereous when dry, a half to one and a half inches broad