CLASSIFICATION OF AGARICS 141 



it lias a good flavor after cooking, which destroys the slight acrid 

 taste. 



Micro-chemical tests: G. (Flesh and gills quickly deep blue.) 

 S V. (Gills slowly blue; flesh slightly blue-tinged.) F S. (No effect.) 



117. Russula cyanoxantha Fr. var. (Edible) 



Monographia, 1865. 



Illustrations: Michael, BlJitterpilze, Vol. II, No. 59. 

 Gillet, Champignons de France, No. 605. 

 Cooke, 111., PL 1076 and 1077. (Doubtful.) 

 Bresadola, Fungh. Mang. e. vel., PI. 71. (Doubtful.) 



PILEUS 5-10 cm. broad, rigid, convex then expanded and de- 

 pressed in the center or subinfundibuliform, dark 'bluish-purple or 

 lilac on margin, disk dingy ichifc tinged rose-pink, cuticle thin and 

 adnate, viscid, separable on margin, even, or substriate only near 

 edge, surface somewhat wrinkled or streaked. FLESH white, com- 

 ])act, ])ui'plish or lilac under cuticle. GILLS white, a few forked 

 toward base, few shorter, moderately broad, not very distant, nar- 

 rowed behind, intervenose, STEM 6-9 cm. long, 1-2 cm. thick, 

 ichite, subequal, spougy-stuffed, cortex hard, sometimes cavernous 

 and compressed, glabrous, even or obscurely wrinkled. SPORES 

 white in mass. TASTE mild. ODOR none. 



Scattered or gregarious. Maple and birch, or mixed woods of 

 northern Michigan, oak and maple woods of the southern part. 

 July-August. ~ Not infrequent. 



The above description applies to a definite form which occurs in 

 Michigan and is quite constant. It does not agree with the species 

 understood by Romell, Maire and Peltereaux in Europe, whose typ- 

 ical plant has creamy-white gills and spores. Our species ap- 

 proaches 7?. azurea Bres. in color, but that plant is rather fragile 

 and is related to the R. emetica group. Michael's figures show the 

 colors of the cap w^hen young and not yet decolorized on the disk. 

 It is more frequent northward and may be distinct from the Euro- 

 pean plant. 



