126 THE AGARICACEAE OF MICHIGAN 



The typical R. delica is usually a large plant, simulating Lac- 

 tarius vellerius in size, color, etc. Fries in the Epicrisis says the 

 cap is "shining." This error was omitted in his Monographia but 

 copied again in Hymenenomycetes Europaei. The error has since 

 been repeated by other authors, including Cooke on his plate in 

 the Illustrations. The Michigan plants are exactly like those grow- 

 ing in Sweden, where in some of the specimens the edge of the gills 

 and the apex of the stem were tinged green, as is the case in ours, 

 especially in the plants of the northern part of the state. R. lactea 

 Fr. is said to have very broad, distant, free gills and milk-white cap 

 and stem. I have not seen any plants with the glaucous green gills 

 of R. chloroides Bres. 



100. Russula nigricans Fr. (Edible) 



Epicrisis, 1836-38. 



Illustrations : Cooke, 111., PL 1015. 



Grillet, Champignons de France, No. 625. 

 Michael, Fiihrer f. Pilzfreunde, Vol. Ill, No. 75. 

 Ricken, Blatterpilze, PL 15, Fig. 2. 

 Peck, N. Y. State Mus. Rep. 51, PL 71, Fig. 6-9. 

 Hard, Mushrooms, Fig. 116, p. 181, 1908. 



PILEUS 7-15 cm. broad, subrigid, convex then depressed to sub- 

 infundibuliform, margin at first incurved then spreading and ele- 

 vated, often irregularly wavy, at first whitish and clouded with 

 umber, soon smoky- umber, subviscid at first, glabrous, even on mar- 

 gin. FLESH compact, white, clumgmg to reddish where bruised, 

 then blackish. GILLS narrowed or rounded behind, adnexed, 

 thick and firm, subdistOMt to distant, sometimes intervenose, short 

 and long alternating, white becoming grayish, reddish at first when 

 bruised. STEM 2-6 cm. long, 1-3* cm. thick, solid, hard, stout, glab- 

 rous, even or lacunose-depressed in places, white at first, at length 

 smoky -umber, reddish then blackish where bruised. SPORES sub- 

 globose, 8-10 micr., echinulate, whitish in mass. TASTE mild, some- 

 times tardily but slightly acrid. ODOR none. 



Gregarious or solitary. On the ground in coniferous or fron- 

 dose woods. Throughout the state, rarely in the southern part, 

 more plentiful in the north. July-September. 



This Russula usually persists in ordinary weather without decay- 

 ing and is then frequently inhabitated by another mushroom, 



