CLASSIFICATION OF AGARICS 143 



119. Russula maiias Pk. (Edible) 



N. Y. State Mus. Rep. 24, 1872. 



Illustrations: N. Y. State Mus. Bull. 75, Fig. 1-8, 1901. 

 Plate XVIII of this Report. 



PILEUS 3-9 cm. broad, firm, subhemispherical at first, then 

 broadly convex to plane and depressed, dry, subviscid when wet, 

 pruinose-velvcty, dark crimson, reddish-purple or maroon-purple, 

 even, substriate only when old, margin at first incurved. FLESH 

 thick, thinner toward margin, compact, becoming softer, white, 

 sometimes reddish under pellicle. GILLS narrowly adnate or al- 

 most subdecurrent, rather narroiv, of nearly uniform width, white 

 then dingy cream-color, close to subdistant, equal, bifurcate at base. 

 STEM 3-9 cm. long, 8-15 mm. thick, subequal or tapering downward, 

 firm then fragile, spongy-stuffed, pruinose, rosy-red to dull purplish- 

 red, especially in the middle, rarely white except at ends, white 

 within and unchanging. SPORES globose, tuberculate-crystallate, 

 7.8 micr., creamy -tvhitish in mass, scarcely yellowish-tinged. CYS- 

 TIDIA rather abundant, lanceolate, 90-95x12 micr. BASIDIA 36-42 

 x9 micr. Suhhymenium of small cells, not sharply limited. TASTE 

 mild or rarely very slightly acrid. ODOR none. 



Gregarious. On the ground in frondose woods. Southern Michi- 

 gan. July-August. Infrequent. 



I have examined the type specimens and submitted drawings, pho- 

 tographs and specimens to Peck. His plants average smaller and his 

 figures and descriptions are deceptive as to size as compared with 

 most of the specimens found in Michigan. With us R. maricc is near- 

 ly always larger and has much of the appearance of Cooke's figure of 

 R. expallens (111., PI. 1029), but that species is said to have a very 

 acrid taste. The pileus varies scarlet-red, reddish-purple, maroon 

 or dark purple. The caps of the purple forms have the appearance 

 of those of R. queletii, R. purpurea and R. drimei of Cooke's plates ; 

 but all of these have a very acrid taste. The red forms agree quite 

 well with Gillet's and Michael's figures of R. linnaei, but Romell, 

 Maire, Bresadola and others consider R. linnaei as a doubtful 

 species. The stems of R. maricc are nearly always somewhat col- 

 ored. The pruinosity of the cap and stem is due to minute tufts of 

 purplish or reddish hairs as seen under the microscope. The plant 

 was named by Dr. Peck in honor of his wife Mary. The interpreta- 

 tion of this species in my previous paper (Mich. Acad. Rep. 11, p. 

 70, 1909) was an error. 



