***** Mica´cei. Pileus at first covered with minute, glistening scales, etc.
C. mica´ceus (Bull.) Fr.—mica, grain, granular. (Plate CII, fig. 2, p. 372.) Pileus thin, ovate, then bell-shaped, with the margin more or less revolute, wavy, splitting, closely striate, with a few minute scales and sparkling atoms, or naked, varying in color from whitish-ochraceous to livid-brown, generally darker when moist or old. Gills rather narrow, crowded, white then pinkish, finally black. Stem slender, fragile, easily splitting, slightly silky, white, hollow, often twisted. Plant mostly cespitose.
Height 2–4 in., breadth of pileus, 1–2 in.
Streets, yards and fields, on or about old stumps. May to September. Peck, 23d Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Spores elliptical, blackish, 7–8×4–5µ Massee; 7×8µ W.G.S.; 10×5µ W.P.; elliptical, brown, 6–8µ Peck.
Var. granula´ris. Pileus sprinkled with granules or furfuraceous scales. New York. August. Peck, 47th Rep.
Indiana, H.I. Miller; West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. May to October. McIlvaine.
Common from spring until frost. This is the oval-capped toadstool found in clusters about trees, posts, along grassy sides of pavements, popping up, Brownie-like, from sodded places. Although small and thin, its clusters soon fill baskets, and its continuous growth in some places, from month to month, year to year, makes it one to be depended upon. Stewed for ten minutes it makes a rich, luscious dish. C. congregatus closely resembles it and is equally good.
****** Glabra´ti. Pileus smooth, etc.
C. deliques´cens (Bull.) Fr. Pileus 3–4 in. broad, livid-fuliginous, membranaceous, bell-shaped then expanded, smooth, but dotted with minute points on the disk, never downy or split, the edge turning upward and striate, the striæ broad but not deep. Stem 4 in. long, 2–4 lines thick, hollow, with a bark-like covering, equally attenuated upward, smooth, shining white. Gills free, at length remote from the stem, very crowded, flexuous, very narrow, only ½ line broad, lurid-blackish. Fries.