the base, and the surface and the space between them are marked by
anastomosing veins forming a reticulum suggestive of the hymenium of the
_Polyporaceae_. This character is not evident without the use of a hand
lens. The surface of the gills as well as the edges is provided with
clavate =cystidia= which are filled with a yellow pigment, giving to the
gills the bright yellow color so characteristic. These cystidia extend
above the basidia, and the ends are rounded so that sometimes they
appear capitate. The yellow color is not confined to the cystidia, for
the sub-hymenium is also colored in a similar way. The =spores= are
yellowish, oblong to elliptical or spindle-shaped, and measure 8--12 x
3--5 mu. The =stem= is the same color as the pileus, but paler, and more
yellow at the base. It is marked with numerous minute dots of a darker
color than the ground color, formed of numerous small erect tufts of
mycelium.

Figure 160 is from plants (No. 3977 C. U. herbarium) collected at
Blowing Rock, N. C., during September, 1899. As stated above, the plant
was first described by de Schweinitz as _Agaricus rhodoxanthus_ in 1822.
In 1834 (Synop. fung. Am. Bor. p. 151, 1834) he listed it under the
genus _Gomphus_ Fries (Syst. Mycolog. 319, 1821). Since Fries changed
_Gomphus_ to _Gomphidius_ (Epicrisis, 319, 1836--1838) the species has
usually been written _Gomphidius rhodoxanthus_ Schweinitz. The species
lacks one very important characteristic of the genus _Gomphidius_,
namely, the slimy veil which envelops the entire plant. Its relationship
seems rather to be with the genus _Paxillus_, though the gills do not
readily separate from the pileus, one of the characters ascribed to this
genus, and possessed by certain species of _Gomphidius_ in even a better
degree. (In Paxillus involutus the gills do not separate so readily as
they do in certain species of _Gomphidius_.) Berkeley (Decades N. A.
Fungi, 116) has described a plant from Ohio under the name _Paxillus
flavidus_. It has been suggested by some (see Peck, 29th Report, p. 36;
Lloyd, Mycolog. Notes, where he writes it as _Flammula rhodoxanthus_!)
that _Paxillus flavidus_ Berk., is identical with _Agaricus
rhodoxanthus_ Schw.

_Paxillus rhodoxanthus_ seems also to be very near if not identical with
_Clitocybe pelletieri_ Lev. (Gillet, Hymenomycetes =1=: 170), and
Schroeter (Cohn's Krypt, Flora Schlesien, =3=, 1: 516, 1889) transfers
this species to _Paxillus_ as _Paxillus pelle