Mt. Gretna, Pa., Woodland Cemetery, Philadelphia, West Virginia. On ground over roots, open woods and grassy places. September, October. McIlvaine.
Variable in form, but usually in rose-shaped clusters, which are slightly greenish at times; oftener shades of yellow. The substance is the same in texture as P. intybaceus. Cook in same manner.
P. con´fluens Fr.—stems confluent; adherent. Pilei branched, fleshy, fragile, thick, dimidiate, imbricated, confluent, smooth, fleshy-yellow becoming obscure, slightly scaly. Stem short. Pores short, minute, pallid-white.
Eaten about Nice; savor a little sharp. Cordier; North Carolina, superior eating. Curtis. Pine woods. New Scotland. September.
Our specimens are not at all squamulose, and this character is not attributed to the species by all authors. It is probable that it is not uniform in this respect. Peck, 39th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
P. Berk´eleyi Fr. Very much branched. Pileoli very large, subzonate, finally tomentose, yellowish, fleshy, tough becoming corky and hard. Stem short or none, arising from a long and thick common base growing out of the ground usually near trees or stumps. Pores rather large, irregular, angular, pale yellowish.
A magnificent specimen found near Boston a dozen years ago and exhibited in the window of Doyle, the florist, was fully four feet high and from two to three feet broad, containing very many pileoli.
North Carolina, edible, Curtis; Iowa, Bessey; Ohio, Morgan; Mt. Gretna, Pa., very large specimens, 20 in. across. McIlvaine.
Edible when young.
P. gigante´us Fr.—gigas, a giant. Tuft 1–2 ft. and more broad, in many imbricated layers, fleshy-pliant then somewhat coriaceous. Pilei date-brown, dimidiate, very broad, flaccid, somewhat zoned, rivulose, depressed behind. Stems connato-branched from a common tuber. Pores minute, somewhat round, pallid, at length torn.