The =pileus= is sessile, or sometimes narrowed at the base into a short stem, the caps often numerous and crowded together in an overlapping or imbricate manner. It is nearly orbicular, or reniform, and 1--5 cm. broad. The margin is at first involute. The surface is coarsely hairy or tomentose, or scaly toward the margin, of a rich yellow or buff color. It is soft, but rather tough in consistency. The =gills= are broad, orange yellow. The =spores=, pink in mass, are smooth, elongated, somewhat curved, 6--8 µ long. Figure 144 is from plants (No. 2660, C. U. herbarium) collected in woods near Ithaca. CHAPTER VIII. THE OCHRE-SPORED AGARICS. The spores are ochre yellow, rusty, rusty-brown, or some shade of yellow. For analytical keys to the genera see Chapter XXIV. PHOLIOTA Fr. The genus _Pholiota_ has ferruginous or ferruginous brown spores. It lacks a volva, but has an annulus; the gills are attached to the stem. It then corresponds to _Armillaria_ among white-spored agarics, and _Stropharia_ among the purple-brown-spored ones. There is one genus in the ochre or yellow-spored plants with which it is liable to be confused on account of the veil, namely _Cortinarius_, but in the latter the veil is in the form of loose threads, and is called an arachnoid veil, that is, the veil is spider-web-like. Many of the species of _Pholiota_ grow on trunks, stumps, and branches of trees, some grow on the ground. =Pholiota præcox= Pers. =Edible.=--_Agaricus candicans_ Bull. T. 217, 1770: _Pholiota candicans_ Schroeter, Krypt, Flora, Schlesien, p. 608, 1889. This plant occurs during late spring and in the summer, in pastures, lawns and grassy places, roadsides, open woods, etc. Sometimes it is very common, especially during or after prolonged or heavy rains. The plants are 6--10 cm. high, the cap from 5--8 cm. broad, and the stem 3--5 mm. in thickness. The plants are scattered or a few sometimes clustered. The =pileus= is convex, then expanded, whitish to cream color or yellowish, then leather color, fleshy, the margin at first incurved, moist, not viscid. Sometimes the pileus is umbonate. The surface is sometimes uneven from numerous crowded shallow pits, giving it a frothy appearance. In age the margin often becomes upturned and fluted. The =gills= are adnate or slightly decurrent by a tooth, 3--4 mm. broad, a little broader at or near the middle, crowded, white, then ferruginous brown, edge sometimes whitish. There is often a prominent angle in the gills at their broadest diameter, not far from the stem, which gives to them, when the plants are young or middle age, a sinuate appearance. The =spores= are ferruginous brown, elliptical. =Cystidia= abruptly club-shaped, with a broad apiculus. The =stem= is stuffed, later fistulose, even, fragile, striate often above the annulus. The stem is whitish or sometimes flesh color. The veil is whitish, large, frail, and sometimes breaks away from the stem and clings in shreds to the margin of the cap.