onata. Two-thirds natural size.
Entire plant white and silky.]

Umbonata, having an umbo or conical projection like the boss of a
shield. This plant is quite common on the richly manured lawns of
Chillicothe. I have found it from June to October. The pileus is white
or whitish, sometimes grayish, often smoky on the umbo; globose when
young, bell-shaped, plane when fully expanded, umbonate, smooth;
slightly viscid when moist, shining when dry, inch to an inch and a half
broad. The flesh is white and very soft.

The gills are free, white at first, then from flesh-color to a reddish
hue from the rosy-colored spores; some of the gills are dimidiate,
somewhat crowded, broader in the middle.

The stem is two inches to two and a half long, tapering from the base
up, smooth, cylindrical, hollow and firm. The volva is always present,
free, variously torn, white and sometimes grayish.

The entire plant is silky when dry. I have found it growing in my buggy
shed. It is not abundant, though quite common. I have never eaten it,
but I do not doubt its edibility.

_Volvaria pusilla. Pers._

[Illustration: Figure 195.--Volvaria pusilla.]

The pileus is explanate, white, fibrillose, dry, striate, center
slightly depressed when mature.

The gills are white, becoming flesh-color, from the color of the spores,
free, distant.

The stem is white, smooth, volva split to the base into four nearly
equal segments. The spores are broadly elliptical, 5-6 mc.

This is the smallest species of the Volvaria. It grows on the ground
among the weeds and is apt to escape the attention of the collector
unless he knows its habitat. It is quite likely that V. parvula is the
same plant as this. Also V. temperata, although it has a different
habitat, seems to be very near this species. The plants in Figure 195
were collected in Michigan and photographed by Dr. Fischer. The volva is
brown-tipped as shown in the figure given.

_Volvaria volvacea. Bull._

THE STOVE VOLVARIA.

It is called "The Stove Volvaria" because it has been found in old
unused stoves. Pileus fleshy, soft, bell-shaped, then expanded, obtuse,
virgate, with adpressed black fibrils. The gills are free,
flesh-colored, and inclined to deliquesce. The stem is solid, subequal,
white. The volva loose, whitish. The spores are smooth, elliptical.

This is a much smaller plant than the V. bombycina and grows in the
ground. It is often found in hot-houses and cellars.

_Entoloma