.

The gills are very narrow, crowded, whitish or grayish.

The stem is slender, three to five inches long, equal, hollow, clothed
with a dense grayish velvety tomentum. _Peck._

They usually grow in a very crowded condition, many plants growing from
one mat of mycelium. It is quite a common plant with us, found in damp
woods or around a swampy place. The pileus with us is convex. Some
authorities speak of an umbilicate cap. The plant is quite hardy and
easily identified because of its long and slender stem, with the grayish
tomentum at the base. Found from July to October.

The specimens in Figure 105 were found at Ashville, Ohio.

_Marasmius cohaerens. (Fr.) Bres._

THE STEMMED-MASSED MARASMIUS. EDIBLE.

[Illustration: Figure 106.--Marasmius cohaerens. Two-thirds natural size,
showing how the stems are massed together.]

Cohaerens means holding together, referring to the stems being massed
together.

The pileus is fleshy, thin, convex, campanulate, then expanded,
sometimes slightly umbonate, in old specimens the margin upturned or
wavy, velvety, reddish tan-color, darker in the center, indistinctly
striate.

The gills are rather crowded, narrow, adnate, sometimes becoming free
from the stem, connected by slight veins, pale cinnamon-color, becoming
somewhat darker with age, the variation of color due to the number of
cystidia scattered over the surface of the gills and on their edge.
Spores, oval, white, small, 6x3u.

The stem is hollow, long, rigid, even, smooth, shining, reddish-brown,
growing paler or whitish toward the cap, a number of the stems growing
together at the base with a whitish myceloid tomentum present.

The plant grows in dense clusters among leaves and in well rotted wood.
I have found it quite often about Chillicothe. It is called Mycena
cohaerens, Fr., Collybia lachnophylla, Berk., Collybia spinulifera, Pk.
The plants in Figure 106 were found near Ashville, Ohio. September to
frost.

_Marasmius candidus. Bolt._

THE WHITE MARASMIUS.

[Illustration: Figure 107.--Marasmius candidus. Natural size.]

Candidus means shining white. This delicate species grows in moist and
shady places in the woods. It grows on twigs, its habitat and structure
are fully illustrated in the Figure 107.

The pileus is rather membranaceous, hemispherical, then plane or
depressed, pellucid, wrinkled, naked, entirely white.

The gills are adnexed, ventricose, distant, not entire.

The stem is thin, s