Var. _sylvestris_ Pk. has the center of the cap brownish or rusty-brown, and grows in thin woods. _Peck_, 49th Rep. N.Y. State Bot. =Spores= inclining to fuscous, spheroid-ellipsoid, 8–13×5–7µ _K._; 8×6µ _W.G.S._; 8–13×6–7µ _Massee_. West Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, May to August. On rich ground, lawns, gardens, etc. _McIlvaine._ Coming as it does in early spring, it is a prized species wherever found. The caps only are good. _B._ TRUNCIGENI. On wood. ** Squamosi. _Scaly._ (Plate LXXIII.) [Illustration: PHOLIOTA SQUARROSA. One-half natural size. ] =P. squarro´sa= Mull.—_squarrosus_, scurfy. (Plate LXXI, fig. 3, page 268.) =Pileus= 3–5 in. broad, saffron-rust-color, scaly with _innate, crowded, revolute, darker_ (becoming dingy brown), persistent _scales_, fleshy, convex bell-shaped then flattened, commonly obtusely umbonate or gibbous, dry. =Flesh= light-yellow, compact when young, sometimes thin. =Stems= curt when young, as much as 8 in. long when full-grown, as much as 1 in. thick at the apex, remarkably attenuated downwards, stuffed, scaly as far as the ring with crowded, revolute, darker scales. =Ring= only slightly distant from the apex, rarely membranaceous, entire or often slashed, generally floccoso-radiate, of the same color as the scales. =Gills= adnate with a decurrent tooth, crowded, narrow, _pallid-olivaceous_ then rust-color. =Spores= ferruginous. Very cespitose, forming large heaps. Stems commonly cohering at the base, varying very much in stature in the same cluster; varying also much thinner, scarcely ever curved-ascending. Odor heavy, stinking; sometimes, however, obsolete. _Stevenson._ =Spores= ellipsoid, 7–8x4–5µ _K._; 4x5µ _W.G.S._; 8x4µ _Massee_. On trunks of trees, on and near stumps, etc. Common. August to December. West Virginia, 1881–1885, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. On rotten wood and stumps. August to long after frost. _McIlvaine._ Edible. _Curtis._ The American species, as I have repeatedly found it, is not so large as given in the European description, and the habitat is more closely confined to the trunks of standing trees and stumps not much decayed. It is a showy species, to be seen from afar off, especially after the leaves fall. Taste when young, raw, is sweet, mealy; when mature, like stale lard. Cooked, the caps are of good substance and flavor. One of the very best. =P. squarrosoi´des= Pk.—_squarrosus_, scurfy; _eidos_, form. =Pileus= firm, convex, viscid when moist, at first densely covered by erect papillose or subspinose tawny scales, which soon separate from each other, revealing the whitish color and viscid character of the pileus. =Lamellæ= close, emarginate, at first whitish, then pallid or dull cinnamon color. =Stem= equal, firm, stuffed, rough with thick squarrose scales, white above the thick floccose ring, pallid or tawny below. =Spores= minute, elliptical, 5×4µ.