The gills are attached to the stem, frequently quite simple and few in number, about fifteen, with shorter ones between, sometimes forked, whitish.
The stem is one to two inches long, horny, filiform, hollow, quite smooth, black, often twisted when dry. The spores are 7×3-4µ.
This is a very attractive little plant found on the leaves in the woods after a rain. They are quite abundant. Found from July to October.
[Illustration: Figure 104.--Marasmius foetidus.]
The pileus is submembranaceous, tough, convex, then expanded, umbilicate striato-plicate, turning pale when dry, subpruinose.
The gills are annulato-adnexed, distant, rufescent with a yellow tinge.
The stem is hollow, minutely velvety, bay, base flocculose.
The caps are light brownish-red in color, fading when dry. When fresh it has a foetid odor quite perceptible for such small plants. It is found on decayed sticks and leaves in woods. During wet weather or after heavy rains it is quite common in the woods about Chillicothe.
This is also called Heliomyces foetens (Pat.) and is so classified by Prof. Morgan in his very excellent Monogram on North American Species of Marasmius.
[Illustration: Figure 105.--Marasmius velutipes.]
Velutipes means velvet-footed, from the velvety stem. The pileus is thin, submembranaceous, smooth, convex, or expanded, grayish-rufous when moist, cinereous when dry, a half to one and a half inches broad.
The gills are very narrow, crowded, whitish or grayish.
The stem is slender, three to five inches long, equal, hollow, clothed with a dense grayish velvety tomentum. _Peck._
They usually grow in a very crowded condition, many plants growing from one mat of mycelium. It is quite a common plant with us, found in damp woods or around a swampy place. The pileus with us is convex. Some authorities speak of an umbilicate cap. The plant is quite hardy and easily identified because of its long and slender stem, with the grayish tomentum at the base. Found from July to October.
The specimens in Figure 105 were found at Ashville, Ohio.
[Illustration: Figure 106.--Marasmius cohærens. Two-thirds natural size, showing how the stems are massed together.]
Cohærens means holding together, referring to the stems being massed together.