150 THE AGARICACEAE OF MICHIGAN 



127. Russula borealis Kauff. (Edible) 



Mich. Acad. Sci. Rep. 11, p. 69, 1909. 



PILEUS 5-9 cm. broad, firm and rather compact, convex then 

 piano-depressed, outline broadly elliptical, often with a sinus on 

 one side, blood-red, disk darker or color uniform and not fading, 

 pellicle somewhat separable, hardly viscid, margin even or ob- 

 scurely striate. FLESH white, red under the cuticle, not very 

 thick." GILLS ochraceous, subdistant or moderately close, medium 

 broad, broader in front, narrowly adnate, rather distinct, edge often 

 reddish anteriorly, equal, a few forked toward base, interspaces 

 venose STEM white and tinged red in places, firm, spongy-stuffed, 

 thickened below, 5-7 cm. long, 1.5-2 cm. thick. SPORES deep 

 ochraceous-yellow in mass. TASTE mild, sometimes slightly and 

 tardily acrid. ODOR none. 



Solitary. In mixed woods of hemlock, yellow birch and hard 

 maple, in the Northern Peninsula. Huron Mountains, Marquette 

 and Munising. August. 



Russula alutacea is usually larger, stouter, the cap dull or sordid 

 red, and with broader gills. Russula ochrophylla occurs in oak 

 woods, has "buff spores, dusted" on yellow gills, and has violaceous- 

 purple or purple-red cap. Peck saw our plant but did not refer 

 it to either species. This species and R. alutacea show the futility 

 of using the striations on the margin of the cap as an important 

 character to distinguish the main groups. A true pellicle is present 

 in both and is often quite easily separated especially on the margin, 

 and this with the character of the gills connects them very closely 

 with the Fragiles. R. linnaei, which is not well known in Europe, 

 looks like it according to Cooke's figures, but is said to have white 

 gills and spores. 



128. Russula alutacea Fr. (Edible) 



Syst. Myc, 1821. 



Illustrations: Cooke, 111., PI. 1096 and 1097. 

 Gillet, Champignons de France, No. 597. 

 Berkley, Outlines, PI. 13, Fig. 8 (reduced in size). 

 Bresadola, Fungh. mange, e. vel., PI. 76. 

 Patouillard, Tab. Analyt., No. 513. 



Michael, Fiihrer f. Pilzfreunde, Vol. II, No. 65 (as Bus- 

 sulina alutacea). 



