98 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Gregarious ; in pine woods. Albany county. October. 



The specimens referred to this species were formerly thought to 

 belong to Russula nitida (Pers.) Fr. but they agree much 

 more closely with the description of this more recently described 

 russula, from which they can scarcely be specifically distinct. The 

 plant differs from R. n i t i d a in having no well marked odor and 

 in having neither the pileus nor the lamellae shining. Cystidia are 

 present but they are slightly shorter than in the typical form of 

 R. t u r c i. 



Russula chamaeleontina Fr. 

 CHAMELEON RUSSULA 



Pileus thin, fragile, plane or slightly depressed in the center, 

 covered with a viscid separable pellicle, even on the margin when 

 young, becoming slightly striate with age, variable in color, pinkish 

 or rose-red, purplish or lilac, becoming yellow in the center or 

 wholly yellowish, flesh white, taste mild ; lamellae thin, close, narrow, 

 adnexed or free, sometimes forked, yellow ; stem slender, slightly 

 striate, somewhat hollow, white; spores ochraceous, globose, .0003 

 of an inch broad. 



Pileus 1-2 inches broad; stem 1-2 inches long, 2-3 lines thick. 



Woods. Saratoga and Albany counties. July and August. 



Russula alutacea Fr. 



TAN COLORED RUSSULA 



Pileus fleshy, convex becoming plane or centrally depressed, cov- 

 ered with a viscid pellicle, even on the margin when young, becom- 

 ing more or less tuberculose striate when old, variable in color, red, 

 bright blood-red, dark purple, olivaceous or green, flesh white, taste 

 mild; lamellae thick, broad, equal, subdistant, rounded behind, pale 

 yellow becoming" ochraceous tinged with tan color, naked, stem 

 stout, solid, spongy within, even, white or red; spores ochraceous 

 yellow, subglobose, .0003-.0005 of an inch long, .0003-.0004 broad. 



Pileus 2-4 inches broad; stem 1-2.5 inches long, 6-12 lines 

 thick. 



Woods and groves. July and August. Common. 



A large fine species considered edible but I have not tried it. 

 The color of the pileus is so variable that the species is not always 

 readily recognized. From R. Integra, which is also variable 

 in the color of the pileus, it may be separated by the naked lamellae 

 and the ochraceous color of the spores. 



