Readily known by its extremely tall stem, shaggy cap, distinct umbo and the channel between the gills and stem. Resembles no poisonous species. Before cooking the scurf should be rubbed from the caps, which alone should be eaten, as the stem is tough. Though the flesh is thin, the gills are meaty and have a pleasant, nutty flavor. Fried in butter it has few equals. It makes a superior catsup. =L. racho´des= Vitt. _Gr._—a ragged, tattered garment. =Pileus= very fleshy, but very soft when full grown, globose then flattened or depressed, not umbonate, at first incrusted with a _thick, rigid_, even, very smooth, bay-brown, wholly continuous _cuticle_, which remains entire at the disk but otherwise _soon becomes elegantly reticulated with cracks_; these very _readily separate_ into _persistent_, polygonal, concentric _scales_, which are revolute at the margin and attached to the surface with beautifully radiating fibers, the surface remaining coarsely fibrillose-downy. =Flesh= white, _immediately becoming saffron-red_ when broken, easily separating from the apex of the distinct stem, which is encircled with a prominent collar. =Stem= stout, at the first bulbous with a distinct margin upon the bulb, conical when young, then elongated, attenuated upward, as much as a span long, very robust, 1 in. thick, and more at the base, always even, and _without a trace of scales_ or even of fibrils although the appearance is obsoletely silky, wholly whitish, hollow within, stuffed with spider-web threads, the walls remarkably and coarsely fibrous. =Ring= movable, adhering longer to the margin of the pileus than to the apex of the stem, hence rayed with fibers at the circumference, clothed beneath with one or two zones of scales. =Gills= _very remote_, tapering toward each end or broadest at the middle, crowded, whitish, sometimes reddening. _Stevenson._ Veil remarkable in its development and thick margin. =Spores= 6×8µ _W.G.S._ Fort Edward, _Howe_; Westfield, N.Y., _Miss L.M. Patchen_; Pennsylvania, New Jersey, _McIlvaine_. A heavier species than L. procera, of which by some writers it has been considered a variety, but it differs in the absence of umbo and flesh becoming tinged with red. Stem is decidedly swollen downward. Veil heavy, apparently double, thickest at margin of cap to which it remains attached in heavy fragments. It tears from the stem, leaving no mark of ring. Var. _puella´ris_ Fr.—_puella_, a girl. Smaller than typical form, shining white, pileus with downy scales. Not yet reported in America. Edible qualities similar to those of L. procera. It is sold indiscriminately with it in London markets.