Figure 243.—Cortinarius armillatus. Two-thirds natural size, showing the rings on the stem.
Armillatus means ringed; so called because the stem is banded with one or more rings, or red bands. The pileus is two to four inches broad, fleshy, not compact, bell-shaped, then expanded, soon innately fibrillose and torn into scales, smooth when young, reddish-brick-color, margin thin, flesh dingy-pallid.
The gills are very broad, distant, adnate, slightly rounded, pallid, then dark-cinnamon.
The stem is fairly long, solid, bulbous, whitish, with two or three red zones, somewhat fibrillose. The spores 10×6µ.
This is a very large and beautiful Cortinarius and it has such a number of striking ear marks that it can be easily recognized. The thin and generally uneven margin of the pileus and the one to four red bands around the stem, the upper one being the brightest, will distinguish this species from all others. It is found in the woods in September and October. In quite young specimens the collector will notice two well defined arachnoid veils, the lower one being much more dense. Prof. Fries speaks of them as follows: "Exterior veil woven, red, arranged in 2–4 distant cinnabar zones encircling the stem; partial veil continuous with the upper zone, arachnoid, reddish-white." The specimens in Figure 243 were collected in Michigan and photographed by Dr. Fischer of Detroit. A number of this species form a prize for the table.
Cortinarius Atkinsonianus. Kauff.
Figure 244.—Cortinarius Atkinsonianus. Caps waxy-yellow, bulbous stem, spider-like veil.