140 THE AGARICACEAE OF MICHIGAN 



116. Russula variata Banning — Pk. (Edible) 

 >;. Y. State Mus. Bull. 105, 1906. 



Illustrations : Ibid, PL 101, Fig. 1-5. 



Hard, Mushrooms, Fig. 154, p. 194, 1908 (as B. furcata). 



PILEUS 5-12 cm. broad, fleshy, firm, convex then depressed to 

 subinfundibuliform, viscid, not striate, purplish or deep rose pink 

 when young, later variegated with olive or dark umber or sometimes 

 greenish with only a trace of purple, opaque and reticulate-wrinkled 

 under lens, the thin pellicle slightly separable on the thin margin, 

 with a subsilky or dull luster when dry. FLESH white, firm, 

 cheesy, tinged grayish under pellicle. GILLS shining and persist- 

 ently tvhite, adnato-decurrent, thin, rather crowded, narrowed at 

 both ends, not broad, siibdichotomoiisly forked, interspaces venose. 

 STEM 4-7 cm. long, 1-3 cm. thick, white, firm, solid, equal or sub- 

 equal, sometimes tapering downward, even, SPORES white in 

 mass, subglobose, 7-10 micr, TASTE mild to tardily acrid or 

 slightly astringent. CYSTIDIA very few and short. Siihhymen- 

 ium not clearly differentiated. ODOR none. 



Grregarious. Under conifers at Marquette, in deciduous woods 

 about Ann Arbor. July, August and September. Frequent. 



Superficially nearest to the descriptions of R. furcata Fr. and 

 R. virescens Fr. The former species is rare in Europe, and most 

 authors have consigned it to oblivion or consider it a variety of R. 

 cyanoxantha. The plants which used to be referred to R. furcata 

 in this country, have found a more appropriate resting place in 

 7?. variata. The figures of R. cutefracta Cke. (Cooke, 111., PI. 1024 

 and 1040) show the color of the young and old plants much better 

 than do Peck's figures, and if Cooke's species had pure white spores 

 and white and dichotomously forked gills, they could be considered 

 identical; however, these points are not clear. Peltereaux thinks 

 R. cutefracta Cke. occurs in France and has ochraceous spores and 

 that the cracked margin of the cap is a weather effect; this then 

 could not be our species with white spores. When one finds single old 

 plants with much green, it is quite difficult to distinguish them from 

 R. virescens; they are to be separated by their dichotomously 

 forked gills which are slightly decurrent and more persistently 

 white, and by the slight acridity. The cuticle is sometimes cracked 

 toward the margin as in R. virescens, but its margin is at first 

 incurved while in R. virescens it is straight on the stem. Peck says; 



