CLASSIFICATION OF AGARICS 149 



126. Russula lubescens Beards. (Edible) 



Mycologia, Vol. 0. p. 91, 11)14. 



Illustrations: Beardslee. Mvcologia, Vol. (J. PI. 121, Fig. 1. 

 Plate XIX of this Report. 



PILEUS 4-10 cm. broad, firm, becoming fragile, convex-plane, 

 dull-red, variegated with yellowish, ochraceoiis or olivaceous- 

 putplish hues, at first darker, fading, pellicle adnate, dry, scarcely 

 separable and substriate on the margin, subglabrous, margin acute 

 and at first straight. FLESH whitish, staining sloivly red then 

 Mack ivhere icounded, becoming cinereous from age. GILLS nar- 

 rowly adnate, broader in front, close to subdistant, medium broad, 

 equal, rarely forked, white at first then pale creamy-ochraceous, in- 

 tervenose. STEM 3-7 cm. long, 1-2.5 cm. thick, subequal or tapering 

 down, spongy-stuffed, glabrous, even, white, becoming cinereous in 

 age, changing slowly to red then blackish where bruised. SPORES 

 globose, pale ochraceous, 7-10 micr. CYSTIDIA few and short, 

 suhhymenium not differentiated. TASTE nnld. ODOR none. 



Gregarious or scattered. On the ground in frondose woods. Ann 

 Arbor. July-August. Infrequent. 



Remarkable among the Subrigidae for the changes which the flesh 

 assumes on bruising. It approaches R. nigrescentipes Pk., but that 

 species is said to have a shining red cap and crowded white gills, 

 and the stem turns blackish ; no mention is made of any red 

 stains preceding the black and since the change is slow it could 

 scarcely be overlooked. Our species has ai)peared from season to 

 season but never in abundance. It is a firm plant when fresh, be- 

 coming fragile only in age. It is apparently also related to R. 

 depallens Fr. but Maire says "nobody knows this, even in Sweden." 

 R. ohscura Rom. has a velvety-pruinose pileus whose color is rather 

 uniform, and whose flesh is of a different consistency. 



Micro-chemical tests : G. (Gills and flesh turn blue.) S V. (Gills 

 and flesh turn bluish very slowly.) F S. (Cystidia colored brown). 



As this report was ready for the press there appeared in print 

 the above name applied by Beardslee to a species from Asheville, 

 N. C, which seems identical with ours. 



