C. dryophil´a Bull. Gr.—oak-loving. (Plate [XXVIII], fig. 3, p. 112.) Pileus 1–3 in. across, bay-brown-rufous, etc., becoming pale, but not hygrophanous, slightly fleshy, tough, convexo-plane, obtuse, commonly depressed in the center, even, smooth; margin at first inflexed then flattened. Flesh thin, white. Stem 1–3 in. long, 1–3 lines thick, cartilaginous, remarkably tubed, thin, even, smooth, somewhat rooting, commonly becoming yellow or reddish. Gills somewhat free, with a small decurrent tooth, but appearing adnexed when the pileus is depressed, crowded, narrow, distinct, plane, white or becoming pale.
There are numerous monstrous forms which are very deceiving: a. Stem elongated, waved, decumbent, inflated at the base; pileus broader, lobed; gills white. b. Funicularis, larger, cespitose, the lax and decumbent stem equal and hairy at the base, gills sulphur-yellow. These forms, analagous with A. repens Bull., occur on heaps of leaves. c. Countless specimens growing together in a large cluster; stems thick, inflated, irregularly shaped, sulcate, brown, the mycelium collecting the soil in the form of a ball; pileus very irregularly shaped, full of angles, undulated, blackish then bay-brown. In gardens. Stevenson.
Spores elliptic-fusiform, 7–8×4µ; 6µ W.G.S.
Professor Peck, 49th Rep. N.Y. State Bot., gives the following: Pileus thin, convex or nearly plane, sometimes with the margin elevated, irregular, obtuse, glabrous, varying in color, commonly some shade of bay-red or tan-color. Flesh white. Lamellæ narrow, crowded, adnexed or almost free, white or whitish, rarely yellowish. Stem equal or sometimes thickened at the base, cartilaginous, glabrous, hollow, yellowish or rufescent, commonly similar in color to the pileus. Spores, 6–8×3–4µ.
Pileus 1–2 in. broad. Stem 1–2 in. long, 1–2 lines thick.
Woods, groves and open places. Common. June to October.
West Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. McIlvaine.
C. dryophila is so common and variable that descriptions would fail to cover it in its eccentricities. The writer has eaten it in all the forms obtained since 1881. A very pretty form grew in large quantities among pine needles at Eagle’s Mere, Pa., in August, 1897. It was cooked and served at the hotel table. Many ate it and were delighted.
Dr. Badham refers to a case in which illness was caused by eating it. In my eighteen years' experience with it, knowing it to have been enjoyably eaten by scores of persons, I have not heard of the slightest discomfort from it.
C. spinulif´era Pk.—spinula, a little thorn. Pileus fleshy, thin, convex or nearly plane, glabrous, hygrophanous reddish tan-color tinged with pink and slightly striatulate on the margin when moist, paler when dry, adorned with minute colored spinules or setæ. Gills narrow, close, rounded behind and free, pale cinnamon-color, becoming somewhat darker with age, spinuliferous. Stem slender, tough, glabrous, shining, hollow, reddish-brown, often paler or whitish at the top, especially in young plants, with a whitish myceloid tomentum at the base. Spores elliptical or nearly so, 4µ.