The spores of this series are of great variety of color, including rosy, pink, salmon-color, flesh-color, or reddish. In Pluteus, Volvaria, and most of Clitopilus, the spores are regular in shape, as in the white-spored series; in the other genera they are generally irregular and angular. There are not so many genera as in the other series and fewer edible species.

Pluteus. Fr.

Pluteus means a shed, referring to the sheds used to make a cover for besiegers at their work, that they might be screened from the missiles of the enemy.

They have no volva, no ring on the stem. Gills are free from the stem, white at first then flesh-color.

Pluteus cervinus. SchÆff.

Fawn-colored Pluteus. Edible.

Cervinus is from cervus, a deer. The pileus is fleshy, bell-shaped, expanded, viscid in wet weather, smooth, except a few radiating fibrils when young, margin entire, flesh soft and white; color of the cap light-brown or fawn-color, sometimes sooty, often more than three inches across the cap.

The gills are free from the stem, broad, ventricose, unequal in length, almost white when young, flesh-colored when mature from the falling of the spores. The stem is solid, slightly tapering upward, firm, brittle, white, spread over with a few dark fibrils, generally crooked. The spores are broadly elliptical. The cystidia in the hymenium on the gills will be of interest to those who have a microscope.

This is a very common mushroom about Chillicothe. It is found on logs, stumps, and especially on old sawdust piles. Note how easily the stem is removed from the cap. This will distinguish it from the genus Entoloma. You cannot get anything in the market that will make a better fry than Pluteus cervinus; fried in butter, it is simply delicious. Found from May to October.

Pluteus granularis. Pk.

Pileus is convex, then expanded, slightly umbonate, wrinkled, sprinkled with minute blackish granules, varying in color from yellow to brown.

The gills are rather broad, close, ventricose, free, whitish, then flesh-colored.

The stem is equal, solid, pallid, or brown, usually paler at the top, velvety with a short, close pile.

The spores are subglobose, about .0002 inch in diameter. The plant is two to three inches high, pileus one to two inches broad, stem one to two lines thick. Peck, 38th Rep. N. Y. State Bot.

This is a much smaller species than P. cervinus, but its esculent qualities are quite as good. Found from July to October.

Pluteus eximius. Smith.

Eximius, choice, distinguished. The pileus is fleshy, bell-shaped when young, expanded, beautifully fringed on the margin, larger than the cervinus.

The gills are free, broad, ventricose, white at first, then rose-colored, flesh white, and firm.

The stem is thick, solid, and clothed with fibers. Dr. Herbst, Fungal Flora of the Lehigh Valley.

I found some beautiful specimens in George Mosher's icehouse. I am very sorry I did not photograph them.

Volvaria. Fr.

The spores of this genus are regular, oval, rosy-spored. The veil is universal, forming a perfect volva, distinct from the cuticle of the pileus. The stem is easily separable from the pileus. The gills are free, rounded behind, at first white, then pink, soft. Most of the species grow on wood. Some on damp ground, rich mold, in gardens, and in hot-houses. One is a parasite on Clitocybe nebularis and monadelphus.

Volvaria bombycina. (Pers.) Fr.

The Silky Volvaria. Edible.

Bombycina is from bombyx, silk. This plant is so called because of the beautiful silky lustre of the entire plant. The pileus is three to eight inches broad, globose, then bell-shaped, finally convex and somewhat umbonate, white, the entire surface silky, in older specimens more or less scaly, sometimes smooth at the apex. The flesh is white and not thick.

The gills are free, very crowded, broad, ventricose, flesh-colored, not reaching the margin, toothed. The stem is three to six inches long, tapering upward, solid, smooth, the tough volva remaining like a cup at the base. The spores are rosy in mass, smooth, and elliptical. The volva is large, membranaceous, somewhat viscid.

The plant in Figure 192 was found August 16th, on a maple tree where a limb had been broken, on North High Street, Chillicothe. Many people had passed along and enjoyed the shade of the trees but its discovery remained for Miss Marian Franklin, whose eyes are trained to see birds, flowers, and everything beautiful in nature.

I have found the plant frequently about Chillicothe, usually solitary; but on one occasion I found three specimens upon one trunk, apparently growing from the same mycelial mass. The caps of two of them were each five inches across. It usually grows on maple and beech. If you will observe a hollow beech, or sugar snag of which one side is broken away, leaving the sheltered yet open nestling place, you are very likely to find snugly enscounced in its decaying heart one or more specimens of these beautiful silky plants. The volva is quite thick and frequently the plant, when in the egg state, has the appearance of a phalloid. Found from June to October.

Volvaria umbonata. Peck.

The Umbonate Volvaria.

Umbonata, having an umbo or conical projection like the boss of a shield. This plant is quite common on the richly manured lawns of Chillicothe. I have found it from June to October. The pileus is white or whitish, sometimes grayish, often smoky on the umbo; globose when young, bell-shaped, plane when fully expanded, umbonate, smooth; slightly viscid when moist, shining when dry, inch to an inch and a half broad. The flesh is white and very soft.

The gills are free, white at first, then from flesh-color to a reddish hue from the rosy-colored spores; some of the gills are dimidiate, somewhat crowded, broader in the middle.

The stem is two inches to two and a half long, tapering from the base up, smooth, cylindrical, hollow and firm. The volva is always present, free, variously torn, white and sometimes grayish.

The entire plant is silky when dry. I have found it growing in my buggy shed. It is not abundant, though quite common. I have never eaten it, but I do not doubt its edibility.

Volvaria pusilla. Pers.

The pileus is explanate, white, fibrillose, dry, striate, center slightly depressed when mature.

The gills are white, becoming flesh-color, from the color of the spores, free, distant.

The stem is white, smooth, volva split to the base into four nearly equal segments. The spores are broadly elliptical, 5–6 mc.

This is the smallest species of the Volvaria. It grows on the ground among the weeds and is apt to escape the attention of the collector unless he knows its habitat. It is quite likely that V. parvula is the same plant as this. Also V. temperata, although it has a different habitat, seems to be very near this species. The plants in Figure 195 were collected in Michigan and photographed by Dr. Fischer. The volva is brown-tipped as shown in the figure given.

Volvaria volvacea. Bull.

The Stove Volvaria.

It is called "The Stove Volvaria" because it has been found in old unused stoves. Pileus fleshy, soft, bell-shaped, then expanded, obtuse, virgate, with adpressed black fibrils. The gills are free, flesh-colored, and inclined to deliquesce. The stem is solid, subequal, white. The volva loose, whitish. The spores are smooth, elliptical.

This is a much smaller plant than the V. bombycina and grows in the ground. It is often found in hot-houses and cellars.

Entoloma. Fr.

Entoloma is from two Greek words; entos, within; loma, a fringe, referring to the inner character of the veil, which is seldom even apparent. The members of this genus have rosy spores which are prominently angular. There is neither volva, nor annulus. The gills are attached to the stem or notched near the junction of the gills and the stem. The pileus is fleshy and the margin incurved, especially when young. The stem is fleshy, fibrous, sometimes waxy, continuous with the pileus. It corresponds with Hypholoma, Tricholoma, and Hebeloma. It can always be separated from the rosy-spored genera by the notched gills. The flesh-colored spores and gills distinguish the Entoloma from the Hebeloma, which has ochre-spored ones, and Tricholoma, which has white ones.

All the species, so far as I know, have rather a pleasant odor, and for that reason it is highly necessary that the genus and species should be thoroughly known, as they are all dangerous.

Entoloma rhodopolium. Fr.

The Rose-Gray Entoloma.

Rhodopolium is composed of two Greek words, rose and gray.

The pileus is two to five inches broad, hygrophanous; when moist dingy-brown or livid, becoming pale when dry, isabelline-livid, silky-shining; slightly fleshy, bell-shaped when young, then expanded and somewhat umbonate, or gibbous, at length rather plane and sometimes depressed; fibrillose when young, smooth when full grown; margin at first bent inwards and when large, undulated. Flesh white.

The gills adnate, then separating, somewhat sinuate, slightly distant, broad, white, then rose color.

The stem is two to four inches long, hollow; equal when smaller, when larger, attenuated upward; white pruinate at the apex, otherwise smooth; slightly striate, white, often reddish from spores. Spores 8–10×6–8µ. Fries.

The plant is found in mixed woods and is rather common. Captain McIlvaine reports it edible, but I have never eaten any of the Entolomas. Some of them have a bad reputation. Found in September and October.

Entoloma grayanum. Pk.

The pileus is convex to expanded, sometimes broadly umbonate, drab in color, the surface wrinkled or rugose, and watery in appearance. The flesh is thin and the margin incurved.

The gills are at first drab in color, but lighter than the pileus, becoming pinkish in age. The spores on paper are very light salmon-color. They are globose or rounded in outline, 5–7 angled, with an oil globule, 8–10µ, in diameter.

The stem is of the same color as the pileus, but lighter, striate, hollow, somewhat twisted, and enlarged below. The above accurate description was taken from Atkinson's Studies of American Fungi. The plants were found near a slate cut on the B. & O. railroad near Chillicothe. Not edible. This species and E. grisea are very closely related. The latter is darker in color, with narrower gills, and has a different habitat.

Entoloma subcostatum. Atkinson n. sp.

Subcostatum means somewhat ribbed, referring to the gills.

Plants gregarious or in troups or clusters, 6–8 cm. high; pileus 4–8 cm. broad; stems 1–1.5 cm. thick.

The pileus is dark-gray to hair-brown or olive-brown, often subvirgate with darker lines; gills light salmon-color, becoming dull; stem colored as the pileus, but paler; in drying the stems usually become as dark as the pileus.

Pileus subviscid when moist, convex to expanded, plane or subgibbous, not umbonate, irregular, repand, margin incurved; flesh white, rather thin, very thin toward the margin.

Gills are broad, 1–1.5 cm. broad, narrowed toward the margin of the pileus, deeply sinuate, the angles usually rounded, adnexed, easily becoming free, edge usually pale, sometimes connected by veins, sometimes costate, especially toward the margin of the pileus.

Basidia four-spored. Spores subglobose, about six angles, 8–10µ in diameter, some slightly longer in the direction of the apiculus, pale-rose under the microscope.

Stem even, fibrous striate, outer bark subcartilaginous, flesh white, stuffed, becoming fistulose.

Odor somewhat of old meal and nutty, not pleasant; taste similar.

Related to E. prunuloides, Fr., and E. clypeatum, Linn. Differs from the former in dark stem and uneven pileus, differs from the latter in being subviscid, with even stem, and pileus not umbonate and much more irregular, and differs from both in subcostate gills. Atkinson.

The specimens in Plate XXX grew in grassy ground on the campus of the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. They were collected by R. A. Young and photographed by Dr. W. A. Kellerman, and through his courtesy I publish it. The plants were found the last of October, 1906.

Entoloma salmonea. Pk.

Pileus thin, conical or campanulate, subacute, rarely with a minute papilla at the apex, smooth, of a peculiar soft, ochraceous color, slightly tinged with salmon or flesh color.

The gills and stem are colored like the pileus. Peck.

Dr. Peck says, "It is with some hesitation that this is proposed as a species, its resemblance to another species is so close. The only difference is found in[Pg 246]
[Pg 247] its color and in the absence of the prominent cusp of that plant. In both species the pileus is so thin that in well dried specimens, slender, dark, radiating lines on it, mark the position of the lamellÆ beneath, although in the living plant these are not visible." The plant in Figure 199 was found in Purgatory Swamp near Boston, by Mrs. Blackford. They are found in August and September.

Entoloma clypeatum. Linn.

The Buckler Entoloma.

Clypeatum, a shield or buckler. The pileus is slightly fleshy, lurid when moist, when dry gray and rather shining, streaked, spotted, campanulate, then expanded, umbonate, smooth, watery.

Gills just reaching the stem, rounded, ventricose, somewhat distant, minutely toothed, dirty flesh-color.

The stem is stuffed, then hollow, equal, round, clothed with small fibers, becoming pale, covered with a minute powdery substance. The flesh is white when dry. This plant will be distinguished usually by the amount of white mycelium at the base of the stem. Dr. Herbst remarks that it is a genuine Entoloma. It is certainly a beautiful plant when fully developed. It is found in woods and in rich grounds from May till September. Label it poisonous until its reputation is established.

Clitopilus. Fr.

Clitopilus is from clitos, a declivity; pilos, a cap. This genus has neither volva nor ring. It is often more or less eccentric, margin at first involute; stem fleshy, diffused upward into the pileus; the gills are white at first, then pink or salmon-color as the plant matures and the spores begin to fall; decurrent, never notched. The pileus is more or less depressed, darker in the center. The spores are salmon-color, in some cases rather pale, smooth or warted. Clitopilus is closely related to Clitocybe, the latter having white gills, the former pink. It differs from Entoloma just as Clitocybe differs from Tricholoma. It can always be distinguished from Eccilia because the stem is never cartilaginous at the surface. It differs from the genus, Flammula, mainly in the color of the spores.

Clitopilus prunulus. Scop.

The Plum Clitopilus. Edible.

Figure 200.—Clitopilus prunulus.