114 AGARICINI. 



Russula. first hard, then softer and spongy. Gills, a few dimidiate, others divided, 

 rigid, dilated in front, and running out with a very broad rounded apex, 

 whence the margin of the pileus becomes obtuse and is not inflexed. Exceed- 

 ingly handsome, but rather rare. 



IV. HETEROPHYLL^: (R. heterophylla, the typical species of the section). 

 Pileus fleshy, firm, with a thin margin which is at first inflexed, then expanded 

 and striate, covered with a thin adnate pellicle. The gills consist of many 

 shorter ones mixed with longer ones, along with others which are forked. 

 Stem solid, stout, spongy within. 



V. FRAGILES (fragilis, fragile or brittle). Pileus more or less fleshy, rigid- 

 fragile, covered with a pellicle which is always continuous, and in wet 

 weather viscid and somewhat separable ; margin membranaceous, at first 

 convergent and not involute, in full-grown plants commonly sulcate and 

 tubercular. Flesh commonly floccose, lax, friable. Stem spongy, at length 

 wholly soft and hollow. Gills almost all equal, simple, broadening in front, 

 free in the pileus when closed. Several doubtful forms occur. J?. integra is 

 specially fallacious from the variety of its colours. 



* Gills and spores white. 



** Gills and spores white, then light yellowish or bright lemon-yellow. 



*** Gills and spores ochraceous. 



I. COMPACTS. 



1. R. nigricans Fr. Pileus 5-10 cent. (2-4 in.) and more 

 broad, olivaceous-fuliginous, at length black, fleshy to the margin 

 which is at first bent inwards, convex then flattened, umbilicato- 

 depresssed, when young and moist slightly viscid and even 

 (without a separable pellicle), at length rimoso-squamulose ; flesh 

 firm, white, when broken becoming red on exposure to the air. 

 Stem 2.5 cent, (i in.) thick, persistently solid, equal, pallid when 

 young, at length black. Gills rounded behind, slightly adnexed, 

 thick, distant, unequal, paler, reddening when touched. 



Compact, obese, inodorous, within and without at length wholly black, in 

 which it differs from all others. The flesh becomes red when broken because 

 it is saturated with red juice, although it does not exude milk. Sometimes a 

 very few of the gills are dimidiate. 



In woods. Common. June.-Nov. 



Spores papillose, 8 mk. W.G.S. Coarse in habit. Name nigrico, to be 

 blackish. Fr. Monogr. ii. p. 184. Hym. Eur. p. 439. Berk. Out. p. 209. 

 C. Hbk. n. 613. S. Mycol. Scot. n. 582. Hussey i. /. 73. Ag. Bull. t. 579. 

 f. 2, t. 212. Krombh. t. 70. f. 14, 15. Barla t. 17. Sow. t. 36. 



2. R. adusta Fr. Pileus pallid or whitish, cinereous-fuliginous, 



equally fleshy, compact, depressed then somewhat infundibuli- 

 form, margin at first inflexed, smooth, then erect, without stride ; 

 flesh unchangeable. Stem solid, obese, of the same colour as 

 the pileus. Gills adnate then decurrent, thin, crowded, unequal, 

 white then dingy, not reddening when touched. 



It can only be compared with R. nigricans, but is sufficiently distinct ; 



