_Bot. Char._ _Volva_ fugacious, _veil_ single, universal, closely adhering to and confluent with the epidermis, when burst forming a more or less persistent ring towards the middle of the stem; _stem_ hollow, stuffed more or less densely with fine arachnoid threads, thickened at the base, fibrillose; _pileus_ fleshy, not compact, ovate when young, soon campanulate, then expanded and umbonate, more or less shagged with scales; _flesh_ white, soft, sometimes changing colour; _gills_ free, unequal, white, never decurrent. Solitary, persistent, autumnal funguses, growing on the ground. Not dangerous. Esculent species: _Ag. procerus_, _Ag. excoriatus_. Subgenus 3. ARMILLARIA.[119] _Bot. Char._ _Veil_ single, partial, forming a persistent ring, which in the unexpanded plant is joined to the margin of the pileus;[120] _stem_ solid, firm, subfibrillose, unequal; _pileus_ fleshy, convex, expanded, obtuse; _epidermis_ entire, even in the scaly species, and not continuous with the fibres of the ring; _flesh_ white and firm; _gills_ broad, unequal, somewhat acute behind. Esculent species: _Ag. melleus_ (?). Subgenus 4. LIMACIUM.[121] Esculent species: _none_. Subgenus 5. TRICHOLOMA.[122] _Bot. Char._ _Veil_ fibrous or floccose, fugacious; _stalk_ generally solid, firm, fleshy, attenuated upwards, scaly, fibrillose or striate; _pileus_ fleshy, compact, campanulate or depressed, convex; margin attenuated, at first involute, shagged with woolly fibres or lanugo; _gills_ unequal, obtuse behind, emarginate; _flesh_ white and unchangeable. Esculent species: _Ag. prunulus_ and _Ag. personatus_.[123] Subgenus 6. RUSSULA[124] (_Scop._). _Bot. Char._ No _veil_; _stem_ smooth, equal, glabrous, strong, white, spongy within; _pileus_ at first campanulate, then hemispherical, in age depressed, fleshy in the centre, thin at the margin, which is never reflexed at any period of growth, the epidermis bare, smooth, occasionally sticky in wet weather; _gills_ juiceless, mostly equal, occasionally forked, the short ones few, rigid, brittle, broad in front, behind narrow, acute, properly free but apparently adnato-decurrent, from the effusion of the stem into the pileus; _flesh_ firm, dry, white, moderately compact, brittle; _sporules_ white or ochraceous; _gills_ white or yellow. Large or middle size, persistent, solitary funguses, growing on the ground. Esculent species: _Ag. heterophyllus_, _virescens_, and _ruber_. Acrid species: _Ag. emeticus_, _sanguineus_, and _alutaceus_. Subgenus 7. GALORRHEUS.[125] _Bot. Char._ No _veil_; _stalk_ equal, round, solid, effused into the pileus; _pileus_ fleshy, compact, generally umbilicate, margin even, when young involute; _gills_ unequal, sometimes very thick, often forked, narrow, attenuated behind, brittle, connected by a prolonged tooth to the stalk, down which they are slightly decurrent; _flesh_ firm and juicy, distilling milk. Esculent species: _Ag. deliciosus_ and _piperatus_.