remnants of the veil giving it a floccose scaly
appearance, usually ascending because of the crowded growth. The =veil=
is thin and only manifested in the young stage of the plant as a loose
weft of threads. As the cap expands the veil is torn and adheres to the
margin, but soon disappears.

[Illustration: PLATE 6, FIGURE 25.--Hypholoma sublateritium. Cap
brick-red or tawny. (Natural size, often larger.) Copyright.]

[Illustration: PLATE 7, FIGURE 26.--Hypholoma appendiculatum (natural
size, often larger). White floccose scales on cap (var. coroniferum) and
appendiculate veil; caps whitish or brown, tawny, or tinge of ochre.
Gills white, then purple-brown. Copyright.]

The flesh of this plant is said by European writers to be bitter to the
taste, and it is regarded there as poisonous. This character seems to be
the only distinguishing one between the _Hypholoma sublateritium_
Schaeff., of Europe, and the _Hypholoma perplexum_ Pk., of this country
which is edible, and probably is identical with _H. sublateritium_. If
the plant in hand agrees with this description in other respects, and is
not bitter, there should be no danger in its use. According to
Bresadola, the bitter taste is not pronounced in _H. sublateritium_. The
taste probably varies as it does in other plants. For example, in
_Pholiota praecox_, an edible species, I detected a decided bitter taste
in plants collected in June, 1900. Four other persons were requested to
taste the plants. Two of them pronounced them bitter, while two did not
detect the bitter taste.

There is a variety of _Hypholoma sublateritium_, with delicate floccose
scales in concentric rows near the margin of the cap, called _var.
squamosum_ Cooke. This is the plant illustrated in Fig. 25, from
specimens collected on rotting wood in the Cascadilla woods, Ithaca, N.
Y. It occurs from spring to autumn.

_Hypholoma epixanthum_ Fr., is near the former species, but has a yellow
pileus, and the light yellow gills become gray, not purple.

=Hypholoma appendiculatum= Bull. =Edible.=--This species is common
during late spring and in the summer. It grows on old stumps and logs,
and often on the ground, especially where there are dead roots. It is
scattered or clustered, but large tufts are not formed as in _H.
sublateritium_. The plants are 6--8 cm. high, the cap 5--7 cm. broad,
and the stem 4--6 mm. in thickness.

The =pileus= is ovate, convex to expanded, and often the margin
elevated, and