Ag. (Hypholoma) sublateritius Schaeff. "Red Tuft." (Hypholoma sublateritium) "The Brick Top."
Edible.
The cap of this species is fleshy and obtuse, convexo-plane, sometimes showing a superficial whitish cloudiness upon the margin coming from the veil, which soon disappears, leaving it smooth and dry; color tawny brick red, with pale straw margin; flesh compact and whitish, turning yellow when wilted. Stem stuffed and fibrillose, tapering downward. Near its attachment to the cap the color is very light yellow; lower down and towards the root it is covered with patches and lines of burnt sienna color. It bears no distinct ring. In very young plants the filmy veil is sometimes perceived, reaching from the margin of the cap to the stem. This disappears as the cap expands, sometimes leaving the stem obscurely annulate. Gills adnate in full-grown specimens, slightly decurrent, somewhat crowded, dingy white or cinereous, turning to dark olive, never yellow; in old or wilted specimens changing to a dark brown. In old specimens the cap is a reddish brown and the gills are sometimes stained with the purplish brown of the spores.
This is a very common species and very abundant in pine and oak woods. I have seen an oak stump in Prince George's County, Md., measuring from 3 to 4 feet in height, literally covered with mushrooms of this species. This mushroom has been recorded as suspicious by some writers, probably owing to its slightly bitter taste, but I have thoroughly tested its edible qualities, both uncooked and prepared in various ways for the table, using the caps only. It keeps well when dried, and when ground into powder, with the addition of boiling water and a little pepper and salt, makes a very pleasant and nutritious beverage. It is most abundant in the early autumn, and is gathered in this latitude well into the winter, even when the snow is on the ground.
Our American plant is less heavy and more graceful in aspect than the same species in England, as figured in English works, but the general characteristics are the same.
Ag. (Hypholoma) fascicularis Hudson, recorded as deleterious, is figured in "Cooke's Illustrations."
Dr. Berkeley thus distinguishes these two species from each other. Cap of sublateritius is obtuse, discoid; that of fascicularis, subumbonate. Flesh of the former, compact, dingy-white; that of the latter, yellow. Stem in sublateritius is "stuffed," attenuated downwards, ferruginous; stem of fascicularis hollow, thin, flexuose. The gills in both species are adnate, crowded; but in fascicularis they are also linear and deliquescent, and are yellow in color.
Note.—In the Friesian arrangement of the genera of the order Agaricini, which is adopted by M. C. Cooke, Hypholoma finds place as a subgenus of the genus Agaricus, spore series Pratelli. Saccardo in his Sylloge elevates Hypholoma to the rank of a separate genus and places it in his spore series Melanosporæ.
