In dense rings, or gregarious. Pileus smooth, _fleshy_, _convex_, _subumbonate_, generally more or less _compressed_, or _sinuate_; _tough_, coriaceous, _elastic_, _wrinkled_, when _water-soaked brown_, _buff_ or _cream-colour_ when dry; the umbo often remaining _red-brown_, as if _scorched_. Gills _distant_, ventricose, of the _same tint as the pileus_ or _paler_. Stem equal, _solid_, _twisted_, very _tough_ and _fibrous_, _pure, silky, white_; base downy, somewhat rooting and attached to the roots of grass.[167]
Pileus hemispherical, _viscid_ when moist, _shining_ and _smooth_ as if varnished, obtuse, fleshy. Gills very broad, perfectly _horizontal to the stem_, broadly adnate, with a little tooth, minutely _serrated_, mottled with purple-brown sporules. _Stalk very viscid_, shining when dry with a closely-matted silkiness, _fistulose_, sometimes bulbous with a hollow bulb; ring generally complete, reflexed, often dusted with the dark-coloured spores.
Subgenus CLITOCYBE. Section DASYPHYLLI, _Fries_.
“Il est très-agréable au goût.”—_Bulliard._
The following description was made from some among the more characteristic specimens of a large supply which I gathered this autumn (1847) near Hayes, from a spot where they are in the habit of re-appearing regularly in October.
_Pileus_ from two and a half to five inches across; at first depresso-convex; when expanded nearly flat or broadly subumbonate, never depressed, margin at first involute and pruinose; occasionally somewhat waved and lobed, but generally regular in form; smooth, viscid when moist, so that dead leaves adhere to it; grey, brown at the centre, paler towards the circumference. _Flesh_ thick, white, unchanging; _gills_ cream-colour, narrow, decurrent, close, their margins waved, unequal, generally simple. _Stem_ from two to four inches long, from a quarter of an inch to an inch thick; incurved at the base, not rooting, but attaching by means of a floccose down, round its lower portion and for one-third of its length, a large quantity of dead leaves, by which the plant is held erect; subequal, more or less marked with longitudinal pits, firm externally, within of a softer substance. The _odour_ strong, like that of curd cheese.