The stem is slender, equal, stuffed or hollow, thin, clothed with small fibres, yellow, as is also the flesh. The spores are elliptical. This plant is so called because of its color, the entire plant being of a cinnamon-color. Sometimes there are cinnabar stains on the pileus. It seems to grow best under pine trees, but I have found it in mixed woods. My attention was called to it by the little Bohemian boys picking it when they had been in this country but a few days and could not speak a word of English. It is evidently like the European species. There is also a Cortinarius that has blood-red gills. It is var. semi-sanguineus, Fr. July to October.
The plants in Figure 239 were found on Cemetery Hill, Chillicothe, O.
Cortinarius ochroleucus. Fr.
The Pallid Cortinaria.
Figure 240.—Cortinarius ochroleucus. Two-thirds natural size, showing veil and bulbous form of stem.
Ochroleucus, meaning yellowish and white, because of the color of the cap. The pileus is an inch to two and a half inches broad, fleshy; convex, sometimes somewhat depressed in the center, often remaining convex; dry; on the center finely tomentose to minutely scaly, sometimes the scales are arranged in concentric rows around the cap; quite fleshy at the center, thinning out toward the margin; the color is a creamy to a deep-buff, considerably darker at the center.
The gills are attached to the stem, clearly notched, somewhat ventricose; in mature plants, somewhat crowded, not entire, many short ones, pale first, then clay-colored ochre.
The stem is three inches long, solid, firm, often bulbous, tapering upward, often becoming hollow, a creamy-buff.