l8o NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



acrid taste and in its closer adnate gills. Its cap is red, varying from 

 pale red to dark red, viscid when moist, even on the margin when young 

 but somewhat tuberculate and striate when old. Its surface is rough- 

 ened by minute tubercles or pimples, which sometimes appear to run 

 together and form short ridges. These are someti?nes absent from the 

 center of the cap. The viscid cuticle easily peels from the margin of the 

 cap but not from the center. The flesh is white except just under the 

 cuticle, where it is reddish. It is soft and fragile, and its taste is slowly 

 and much less sharply acrid than in the emetic russula. Its gills are 

 closely placed, attached to the stem and persistently white. The stem is 

 brittle, soft and spongy within, smooth and white. The cap is 2-4 inches 

 broad; the stem 2-3 inches long, 4-8 lines thick. 



It grows in woods among mosses and fallen leaves or on the bare 

 ground and appears in August and September. It is an inhabitant of 

 the Adirondack forests. Its slightly acrid flavor is destroyed in cooking 

 and it affords a harmless, tender and agreeable food. 



Russula abietina n. sp. 



FIR TREE RUSSULA 



PLATE 72, FIG. 1-1 1 



Pileus thin, fragile, convex, becoming nearly plane or slightly depressed 

 in the center, viscid when moist, the viscid pellicle separable, tuberculate 

 striate on the margin, flesh white, taste mild ; lamellae subdistant, ventri- 

 cose, narrowed toward the stem, rounded behind and nearly free, whit- 

 ish, becoming pale yellow, the interspaces venose; stem equal or tapering 

 toward the top, stuffed or hollow, white; spores bright yellowish ochra- 

 ceous, subglobose, rough, .0003-.0004 of an inch broad. 



The fir tree russula is closely related to the youthful russula, R. p u e 1 - 

 laris Fr., from which it is separated by the viscid cap, the gills rather 

 widely separated from each other and nearly free, the stem never yellow- 

 ish nor becoming yellow where wounded, and the spores having an 

 ochraceous hue. They are much brighter and more highly colored in 

 the mass than the mature gills. The cap varies much in color, but the 

 center is generally darker than the rest. It may be dull purple or green- 

 ish purple with a brownish or blackish center or sometimes with an olive 

 green center, or it may be olive green or smoky green with a brownish 

 center. Olive green and purplish hues of various shades are variously 

 combined, but sometimes the margin is grayish and the center olive 

 greea. Tne flesh is white and its taste mild. Tne gills are white whea 



