der Agaricini, _genus
Agaricus_, making of it a _sub_-genus. Saccardo, in taking it out of
Agaricus, elevates it to the position of a separate genus. The name
Armillaria is derived from a Greek word, meaning a ring or bracelet,
referring to its ringed stem.

In the plants of the Armillaria the veil is partial in infancy,
attaching the edge of the cap to the upper part of the stem; the stem
furnished with a ring. Below the ring the veil is concrete with the
stem, forming scurfy scales upon it. The gills are broadly adnexed. In
abnormal specimens the ring is sometimes absent, or appearing only in
scales, running down the stem. Spores white. The species are few; eight
are recorded as growing in the United States. Cooke describes twelve
species found in Great Britain.

[Illustration: Plate VI.
AGARICUS (ARMILLARIA) MELLEUS.
Group from Hynesboro Park, Md., U. S.
K. MAYO, del.]

PLATE VI.

=Ag. (Armillaria) melleus= Vahl. "_Honey-Colored Armillaria._"

EDIBLE.

Cap fleshy, rather thin at the margin, at first subconical, then
slightly rounded, or nearly plane, clothed with minute hairy tufts;
margin sometimes striate, color varying, usually a pale-yellowish or
honey color or light reddish brown; flesh whitish. Gills whitish or
paler than the cap, growing mealy with the shedding of the profuse white
spores, and often spotted with reddish-brown stains, adnate, ending with
decurrent tooth. Stem fibrillose, elastic, stuffed or hollow, ringed,
and adorned with floccose scales which often disappear with age; in some
varieties distinctly bulbous at the base, in others showing tapering
root. Specimens occur in which the ring is wanting or only traces of it
appear in the form of scales encircling the stem. Veil usually firm,
membraneous, and encircling the stem in a well-pronounced ring or
collar, but sometimes filmy as a spider's web, in very young specimens
hiding the gills, but breaking apart as the cap expands.

Manner of growth caespitose, generally on decayed tree stumps, although
the group figured in the plate was found growing on moist sand, mixed
with clay, on a roadside in Hynesbury Park.

Authors differ widely as to the value of this species as an esculent. I
have only eaten the very young and small specimens when cooked, and
found them very palatable. A Boston mycophagist records it as "very
good," fried after five minutes' boiling in salted water. Prof. Peck,
having tried it,