e cap the color is very light yellow; lower down and
towards the root it is covered with patches and lines of burnt sienna
color. It bears no distinct ring. In very young plants the filmy veil is
sometimes perceived, reaching from the margin of the cap to the stem.
This disappears as the cap expands, sometimes leaving the stem obscurely
annulate. Gills adnate in full-grown specimens, slightly decurrent,
somewhat crowded, dingy white or cinereous, turning to dark olive, never
yellow; in old or wilted specimens changing to a dark brown. In old
specimens the cap is a reddish brown and the gills are sometimes stained
with the purplish brown of the spores.

This is a very common species and very abundant in pine and oak woods. I
have seen an oak stump in Prince George's County, Md., measuring from 3
to 4 feet in height, literally covered with mushrooms of this species.
This mushroom has been recorded as suspicious by some writers, probably
owing to its slightly bitter taste, but I have thoroughly tested its
edible qualities, both uncooked and prepared in various ways for the
table, using the caps only. It keeps well when dried, and when ground
into powder, with the addition of boiling water and a little pepper and
salt, makes a very pleasant and nutritious beverage. It is most abundant
in the early autumn, and is gathered in this latitude well into the
winter, even when the snow is on the ground.

Our American plant is less heavy and more graceful in aspect than the
same species in England, as figured in English works, but the general
characteristics are the same.

Ag. (Hypholoma) _fascicularis_ Hudson, recorded as deleterious, is
figured in "Cooke's Illustrations."

Dr. Berkeley thus distinguishes these two species from each other. Cap
of _sublateritius_ is obtuse, discoid; that of _fascicularis_,
subumbonate. Flesh of the former, compact, dingy-white; that of the
latter, yellow. Stem in _sublateritius_ is "stuffed," attenuated
downwards, ferruginous; stem of _fascicularis_ hollow, thin, flexuose.
The gills in both species are adnate, crowded; but in _fascicularis_
they are also linear and deliquescent, and are _yellow_ in color.

NOTE.--In the Friesian arrangement of the genera of the order Agaricini,
which is adopted by M. C. Cooke, Hypholoma finds place as a subgenus of
the genus Agaricus, spore series Pratelli. Saccardo in his Sylloge
elevates Hypholoma to the rank of a separate genus and places it in his
spore ser