Ray Brook, Adirondack mountains. August. The pileus is at first white, but in wet weather it becomes pallid or discolored with age. The plants were found growing among pieces of bark of arbor vitæ lying on the ground. Peck, 43d Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Quite common in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. Woods among dead leaves. August until frost.
Edible. Excellent in flavor and quality.
Series B.
IV.—Cyathifor´mes.
C. cyathifor´mis Bull.—cyathus, a cup; formis, form. Pileus 1½-3 in. across, flesh thin, plano-depressed when young, then infundibuliform, even, glabrous, hygrophanous, rather slimy and usually dark brown when moist, becoming pale and opaque when dry, undulate in large specimens, the margin remains involute for a long time. Flesh watery, similar in color to the pileus, splitting. Gills adnate, becoming decurrent with the depression of the pileus, joined behind, distant, grayish-brown, sometimes branched. Stem spongy and stuffed inside, elastic, at length often hollow, 2–4 in. long, 3–4 lines thick, attenuated upward, brownish-fibrillose, fibrils forming an imperfect reticulation, colored like the pileus or a little paler, apex naked (not mealy), base villous. Massee.
On the ground in pastures and woods, rarely on rotten wood.
Usually blackish-umber, but varies to paler grayish-brown, pinky-tan, pale cinnamon or brownish; then dingy-ochraceous or tan-color. Margin expanded when old, and also indistinctly striate. Fries.
Var. cineras´cens Fr. Pileus up to 1 in. across, thin, infundibuliform, pale smoky-brown. Gills decurrent, yellowish-white. Stem 1–2 in. long, 1½ line thick, grayish, reticulately fibrillose, hollow.
Spores 8×5µ W.G.S.; 10–12×5–6µ, B.; 9×6µ Morgan.