Figure 171.—Hygrophorus miniatus. Cap and stems vermilion-red. Gills yellowish and tinged with bright-red.
Miniatus is from minium, red lead.
This is a small but a very common species, highly colored and very attractive. The pileus and the stem are bright red and often vermilion. The pileus is at first convex, but, when fully expanded, it is nearly or quite flat, and in wet weather it is even concave by the elevation of the margin, smooth or minutely scaly, often umbilicate. Its color varies from a bright red or vermilion or blood-red to pale orange hues.
The gills are yellow and frequently strongly tinged with red, distant, attached to the stem, and sometimes notched.
The stem is usually short and slender, colored like, or a little paler, than the cap; solid, when young, but becoming stuffed or hollow with age. The spores are elliptical, white, 8µ long.
The Vermilion mushroom grows in woods and in open fields. It is more plentiful in wet weather. It seems to grow best where chestnut logs have decayed. It can be found in such places in sufficient quantities to eat. Few mushrooms are more tender or have a more delicate flavor. There are two other species having red caps, Hygrophorus coccineus and H. puniceus, but both are edible and no harm could come from any mistake. They are found from June to October. Those in Figure 171 were found in Poke Hollow September 29.