158 THE AGARICACEAE OF MICHIGAN 



R. ochraleuca Fr. differs in having white to pallid gills and spores, . 

 and a cinerescent stem; R. granulosa Cke. has white gills and spores 

 and a granular cap and stein; R. fellea Fr. has ochraceous or straw- 

 yellow flesh and the more firm pileus is either straw or gilvous color, 

 and its gills exude watery drops: R. claroflava Grove has a cinere- 

 scent stem and its gills are white then lemon yellow with an ochre 

 tinge; R, ochracea Fr. has a mild taste, and the flesh of the cap, 

 gins and stem is ochraceous; R. simillima Pk. has white spores and 

 a pale ochraceous pileus and stem; and R. dccolorans Fr. has cin- 

 erescent flesh and is stouter. Our species could be made on ecolog- 

 ical variety of almost any of the above species, depending on the 

 ffuess of the author who so interpreted it. 



Section III. Taste mild. Spore-mass white. 



139. Russula albida Pk. 



N. Y. State Mus. Bull. 2, 1887 {R, albida). 

 N. Y. State Mus. Rep. 50, 1897 (R. albella). 



Illustration: N. T. State Mus. Bull. 105, PL 90 (R. albida). 



PILEUS 3-6 cm. broad, thin, fragile, broadly convex to plane, 

 slightly depressed in the center, white or whitish, even or slightly 

 striate on the margin, not shining. FLESH white, fragile. GILLS 

 white or whitish, thin, moderately close, entire, equal, not broad, 

 broadest in front, rarely forked at base, adnate or subdecurrent. 

 STEM 2.5-6 cm. long, white, subequal, glabrous, spongy-stuffed or 

 solid. SPORES about 8 micr. diani., white. TASTE mild or 



slightly bitterish. 



Solitary. Hemlock or mixed woods in the Northern Peninsula. 



July and August. 



Peck's description of both R, albida and R. albella differs in 

 minor particulars from our plants. The pileus of R. albida has a 

 viscid, separable pellicle, while that of R. albella is dry. 7?. albida 

 is said to have a "slightly bitterish or unpleasant taste," while our 

 plants were sometimes bitterish, sometimes tardily and slightly 

 acrid. R. albida is described with a stuffed or hollow stem; in one 

 of my collections the stem was solid, in another it was spongy- 

 stuffed. It is worth noting whether the spore prints are pure 

 white or with yellow tinge; some of Peck's specimens of R. albida 

 had spores with a faint yellowish tinge. In my specimens the whole 

 plant is ochraceous when dried ; specimens seen at the N. Y. Botan- 



