184 



MUSHROOMS, EDIBLE .-IND OTHERWISE 



because of the thin, crowded gills and failure to turn red when cut or braised. 

 The spores are subglobose, almost smooth, 8-9/u.; no cystidia. It is found in the 

 woods during August and September. Edible but not first class. It is a plant 

 very widely distributed. 



Russtda nigricans. Fr. 



Plato by C. G. Lloyd. 



Figure 146. Russula nigricans. 



Nigricans means blackish. 



The pilens is two to four inches broad, dark grayish-brown, black with ad- 

 vancing age, fleshy, compact, flesh turning red when bruised or convex, flattened, 

 then depressed, at length funnel-Shaped, margin entire, without striate, margin at 

 first incurved, young specimens are slightly viscid when moist, even, without a 

 separable pellicle; whitish at first, soon sooty olive, at length becoming broken up 

 into scales and black; flesh firm and white, becoming reddish when broken. 



The gills are rounded behind, slightly adnexed. thick, distant, broad, unequal, 

 the shorter ones sometimes very scanty, forked, reddening when touched. 



