RBrORT OP THE STATE BOTANIST 1901 967 



"but I have seen no American specimens showing this character 

 fully. The dots in our plant are generally limited to the central 

 part of the surface of the cap, and sometimes they are wanting 

 •entirely in the young plant. The reddish color is similar to that 

 seen in siome species of Russula and is suggestive of the specific 

 name of this mushroom. It may be distinguished from similarly 

 colored species of the genus Russula by the downy pruinosity of 

 the margin of the cap in the young plant, by the different texture 

 of its flesh and the different shape of its spores. The color of 

 the cap of the European plant is said to be varied sometimes 

 with yellow spots but I have seen no such variation in the Amer- 

 ican plant. The cap being viscid when moist is often soiled by 

 adhering particles of dirt, fragments of twigs or fallen leaves. 



The gills are white but sometimes become spotted with red- 

 dish hues when old or bruised. They are slightly excavated or 

 notched on the edge at the end next the stem. The stem is 

 short in proportion to the size of the mushroom, solid, and com- 

 monly white, specially in the young plant, but when old it is 

 often more or less varied with reddish stains. It is sometimes 

 slightly adorned with flocculent particles or scales near the top. 



The cap is 2-5 inches broad; the stem 1-2 inches long and 5-8 

 lines thick. The plants are found late in the season growing in 

 thin woods either singly or in tufts. When growing in tufts 

 the caps are often irregular from mutual pressure. From my 

 own experience in eating this mushroom I am prepared to 

 indorse Mr Mcllvaine's words concerning it. " It is an excellent 

 fungus, meaty, easily cooked and of fine flavor." 



Hygrophorus laurae Morg. 

 LAURA'S HYGROPHORUS 



PLATE 77, FIG. 6-14 



Pileus fleshy, firm, convex becoming nearly plane or centrally 

 depressed, sometimes umbonate, glutinous, white, usually 

 clouded with brown, tawny brown or reddish brown in the cen- 

 ter, flesh white; lamellae distant, decurrent, white; stem equal 

 or tapering downward, solid, glutinous, roughened at the top 



