=H. puni´ceus= Fr.—blood-red. =Pileus= 2–4 in. broad, glittering blood-scarlet, in dry weather and when old becoming pale especially at the disk, slightly fleshy for its breadth, at first bell-shaped, obtuse, commonly repand or lobed, very irregular, even, smooth, viscid. =Flesh= of the same color, fragile. =Stem= 3 in. long, ½-1 in. thick, solid when young, at length hollow, very stout (not compressed), ventricose (attenuated at both ends), striate, and for the most part squamulose at the apex, when dry light yellowish or of the same color as the pileus, always white and often incurved at the base. =Gills= ascending, ventricose, 2–4 lines broad, thick, distant, white-light yellow or yellow and often reddish at the base. _Fries._ The largest of the group and very handsome. It certainly differs from H. coccineus, for which it is commonly mistaken, in stature, in the adnexed gills, and in the white base of the striate stem. The attachment of the gills varies, but from the form of the pileus they ascend to the base of the cone and appear free. In pastures. _Stevenson._ =Spores= 8×5µ _Cooke_. Edible. _Cooke._ No harm would come of confusing it with the vermilion mushroom—H. miniatus Pk. =H. con´icus= Fr.—conical. =Pileus= thin, submembranaceous, fragile, smooth, conical, generally acute, sometimes obtuse, the margin often lobed. =Gills= rather close and broad, subventricose, narrower toward the stem, free, terminating in an abrupt tooth at the outer extremity, scarcely reaching the margin, yellow. =Stem= equal, fibrous-striate, yellow, hollow. =Height= 3–6 in., breadth of pileus 6–12 lines. =Stem= 1–2 lines thick. Ground in woods and open places. North Elba and Center. August to October. The color of the pileus is variable. I have taken specimens with it pale sulphur-yellow and others with it bright red or scarlet. The plant turns black in drying. _Peck_, Rep. 23, New York State Bot. =Spores= 10×7µ _Cooke_; 10×6µ _Morgan_. An old-time cure-all had medicinal virtues proportionate to its offensiveness. Old-time writers, contrariwise, gave every toadstool a bad name which changed color or displeased their noses. The pretty little Hygrophorus conicus, for these reasons, has, until now, been under the ban of suspicion. M.C. Cooke, in his handy book, Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms, was the first to lighten its sentence and make it a sort of ticket-of-leave culprit. The writer has frequently eaten it, and is glad to vouch for its harmlessness and testify to its eminent respectability.