e gills, broadly attached to the stem, gray at first, then
salmon color, will identify the species. July to September.

_Hygrophorus miniatus. Fr._

THE VERMILION HYGROPHORUS. EDIBLE.

[Illustration: Figure 171.--Hygrophorus miniatus. Cap and stems
vermilion-red. Gills yellowish and tinged with bright-red.]

Miniatus is from minium, red lead.

This is a small but a very common species, highly colored and very
attractive. The pileus and the stem are bright red and often vermilion.
The pileus is at first convex, but, when fully expanded, it is nearly or
quite flat, and in wet weather it is even concave by the elevation of
the margin, smooth or minutely scaly, often umbilicate. Its color varies
from a bright red or vermilion or blood-red to pale orange hues.

The gills are yellow and frequently strongly tinged with red, distant,
attached to the stem, and sometimes notched.

The stem is usually short and slender, colored like, or a little paler,
than the cap; solid, when young, but becoming stuffed or hollow with
age. The spores are elliptical, white, 8u long.

The Vermilion mushroom grows in woods and in open fields. It is more
plentiful in wet weather. It seems to grow best where chestnut logs have
decayed. It can be found in such places in sufficient quantities to eat.
Few mushrooms are more tender or have a more delicate flavor. There are
two other species having red caps, Hygrophorus coccineus and H.
puniceus, but both are edible and no harm could come from any mistake.
They are found from June to October. Those in Figure 171 were found in
Poke Hollow September 29.

_Hygrophorus miniatus sphagnophilus. Pk._

[Illustration: Plate XXV. Figure 172.--Hygrophorus miniatus
sphagnophilus.

Natural size.]

Sphagnophilus means sphagnum-loving, so called because it is found
growing on sphagnum.

The pileus is broadly convex, subumbilicate, red.

The gills are adnate, whitish, becoming yellowish or sometimes tinged
with red, occasionally red on the edge.

The stem is colored like the pileus, whitish at the base, both it and
the pileus are very fragile.

This is more fragile than the typical form and retains its color better
in drying. _Peck_, 43d Rep.

This is a beautiful plant growing, as Figure 172 shows, on the lower
dead portion of the stems of bog moss or sphagnum. It grows very
abundantly in Buckeye Lake. The photograph was made by Dr. Kellerman. It
is found from July to October. These plants cook