The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Part 54

_Pholiota squarrosoides. Pk._

LIKE THE SCALY PHOLIOTA. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 216.--Pholiota squarrosoides. Two-thirds natural size. Caps yellow or yellowish.]

Squarrosoides means like Squarrosa. The pileus is quite firm, convex, viscid, especially when moist; at first densely covered with erect papillose or subspinose tawny scales, which soon separate from each other, revealing the whitish or yellowish color of the cap and its viscid character.

The gills are close, emarginate, at first whitish, then pallid or dull cinnamon color.

The stem is equal, firm, stuffed, rough, with thick squarrose scales, white above the thick floccose annulus, pallid or tawny below. The spores are minute, elliptical, .0002 inch long, .00015 inch broad.

They grow in tufts on dead trunks and old stumps, especially of the sugar maple. They closely resemble P. squarrosa. Found late in the fall.

Its favorite haunt is the inside of a stump or within the protection of a log.

_Pholiota squarrosa. Mull._

THE SCALY PHOLIOTA. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Plate x.x.xII. Figure 217.--Pholiota squarrosa.]

Squarrosa means scaly. The pileus is three to four inches broad, fleshy, bell-shaped, convex, then expanded; obtusely umbonate, tawny-yellow, clothed with rich brown scales; flesh yellow near the surface.

The gills are attached to the stem, with a decurrent tooth, at first yellowish, then of a pale olive, changing to rusty-brown in color, crowded, and narrow. The spores are elliptical, 84.

The stem is three to six inches high, saffron yellow, stuffed, clothed with small fibers, scaly like the pileus, attenuated at the base from the manner of its growth. The ring is close to the apex, downy, rich brown, inclining to orange in color.

This is quite a common and showy mushroom. It is found on rotten wood, on or near stumps, growing out from a root underground, and is often found at the foot of trees. Only the caps of the young specimens should be eaten. It is found from August to late frost.

_Inocybe. Fr._

Inocybe is from two Greek words meaning fiber and head; so called from the fibrillose veil, concrete with the cuticle of the pileus, often free at the margin, in the form of a cortina. The gills are somewhat sinuate, though they are sometimes adnate, and in two species are decurrent; changing color but not powdered with cinnamon. Spores are often rough but in other specimens are even, more or less brownish rust-color.

_Stevenson._

_Inocybe scaber. Mull._

ROUGH INOCYBE. NOT EDIBLE.

Scaber means rough. The pileus is fleshy, conical, convex, obtusely gibbous, sprinkled with fibrous adpressed scales; margin entire, grayish-brown.

The gills are rounded near the stem, quite crowded, pale dingy-brown.

The stem is solid, whitish or paler than the pileus, clothed with small fibers, equal, veiled. The spores are elliptical, smooth, 115.

It is found on the ground in damp woods. Not good.

_Inocybe lacera. Fr._

THE TORN INOCYBE.

Lacera means torn. The pileus is somewhat fleshy, convex, then expanded, obtuse, umbonate, clothed with fibrous scales.

The gills are free, broad, ventricose, white, tinged with red, light-gray. Spores are obliquely elliptical, smooth, 126.

The stem is slender, short, stuffed, clothed with small fibers, naked above, reddish within.

Found on the ground where the soil is clayish or poor. Not good.

_Inocybe subochracea Burtii. Peck._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 218.--Inocybe subochracea Burtii. Natural size.]

This is a very interesting species. It is thus described by Dr. Peck: "Veil conspicuous, webby fibrillose, margin of the pileus more fibrillose; stem longer and more conspicuously fibrillose. The well developed veil, and the longer stem, are the distinguis.h.i.+ng characters of this variety."

The plants are found in mossy patches on the north hillsides about Chillicothe. The pale ochraceous yellow and the very fibrillose caps and stem will attract the attention of the collector at once. The caps are one to two and a half inches broad and the stem is two to three inches long.

_Inocybe subochracea. Peck._

Pileus thin, conical or convex, sometimes expanded, generally umbonate, fibrillose squamulose, pale ochraceous-yellow.

The gills are rather broad, attached, emarginate, whitish, becoming brownish-yellow.

The stem is equal, whitish, slightly fibrillose, solid. _Peck._

This is a small plant from one to two inches high whose cap is scarcely over an inch broad. It grows in open groves where the soil is sandy. It is found on Cemetery Hill from June to October.

_Inocybe geophylla, var. violacea. Pat._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 219.--Inocybe geophylla, var. violacea.]

This is a small plant and has all the characteristics of Inocybe geophylla excepting color of cap and gills.

The pileus is an inch to an inch and a half broad, hemispherical at first, then expanded, umbonate, even, silky-fibrillose, lilac, growing paler in age.

The gills are adnexed, lilac at first, then colored by the spores.

Spores 105.

The stem equal, firm, hollow, slightly violaceous.