Pileus flocculose or squamulose. Veil manifest.
None known to be edible.
I.—Gymno´ti.
N. hama´dryas Fr.—Gr, a nymph attached to her tree. Pileus 1½-2 in. broad, bay-brown-ferruginous when young and moist, pale yellowish when old and becoming pale, slightly fleshy, convex then expanded, gibbous, even, smooth. Stem 2–3 in. long, 3 lines thick, somewhat fragile, hollow, equal, naked, smooth, pallid. Gills attenuato-adnexed, somewhat free, slightly ventricose, almost 2 lines broad, crowded, rust-color, opaque. Veil none. Widely removed from neighboring species. Pileus somewhat separate as in Plutei. Fries.
Spores elliptical, rust-color, 13–14×7µ Massee.
Haddonfield, N.J. Frequent. Solitary. On ground along pavements, under trees, in woods. Spring to autumn. McIlvaine.
Massee gives it as hygrophanous. I have not found it so. It is moist after rain and dew.
The caps and upper part of the stem are tender, easily cooked and of good flavor.
N. cero´des Fr. Gr—wax. Pileus ½-1 in. broad, watery cinnamon when moist, tan-color when dry, somewhat membranaceous, convex bell-shape and flattened, at length depressed, obtuse, when moist smooth, pellucid-striate at the circumference, when dry even, slightly silky-atomate. Stem 2–3 in. long, 1–2 lines thick, slightly firm, tubed, equal, somewhat flexuous, fibrilloso-striate under a lens, becoming dingy bay-brown sometimes for the most part, sometimes only at the base, pallid upward, mealy at the apex. Gills adnate, separating, very broad behind, hence almost triangular, somewhat distant, broad, plane, soft, distinct, pallid then cinnamon very finely fimbriated at the edge under a lens. Fries.
The typical form, growing among damp mosses, is quite early, gregarious, with the colors almost those of Galera hypnorum, but otherwise very different. b. Another form occurs on naked, commonly burnt soil, in late autumn, with almost the habit of N. pediades, but with a different color of gills and spores; this form is firmer. Stem 1 in. long, tense and straight, and color more ochraceous. Stevenson.