REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST IQOO l8l 



young, or barely tinged with yellow, but they become pale yellow with 

 age. They are neither crowded nor widely attached to the stem and are 

 connected with each other by cross veins, which can be seen at the bot- 

 tom of the interspaces. The stems are rather slender, soft or spongy 

 within, sometimes becoming hollow and occasionally tapering upward. 

 They are very constantly and persistently white. The cap is 1-2.5 

 inches broad; the stem 1-2.5 inches long, 3-5 Hnes thick. This russula 

 grows under or near pine, spruce or balsam fir trees. It occurs from July 

 to October. It is tender and palatable. The stems also are tender and 

 may be cooked with the caps. 



Pluteus cervinus {Schaeff.) Fr. 



FAWN PLUTEUS 



PLATE 74, FIG. 9-19 



Pileus fleshy, very convex or campanulate, becoming broadly convex 

 or nearly plane, glabrous or fibrillose, rarely squamulose in the center, 

 Variable in color, flesh white, taste disagreeable ; lamellae rather broad, 

 close, rounded behind, free, white or whitish, becoming pink; stem 

 equal or slightly tapering upward, solid, glabrous or slightly fibrillose; 

 spores pink, elliptic, .00025-. 0003 of an inch long, .0002-.00025 broad. 



The cap of the fawn pluteus may be white, yellowish, grayish, grayish 

 brown or dark brown. In the typical form, if we may judge from the 

 specific name, it is grayish red or fawn color, but I have seen no such 

 American specimens. It is sometimes smooth, sometimes adorned with 

 blackish fibrils or small scales, specially in the center. Rarely the center 

 is slightly prominent, and the cap is then almost umbonate. In wet 

 weather it may be slightly viscid. The flesh is white, but its flavor is 

 scarcely agreeable when uncooked. The gills in the young plant are 

 closely packed side by side and may well be called crowded, but with the 

 expansion of the cap they separate and are less crowded. They are 

 rounded at the end next the stem and free from it. When young they 

 are white, when mature, pink. The stem is firm, soHd, straight or 

 curved, glabrous or slightly fibrillose and varies in color from white to 

 brown. A form which has both cap and stem white has received the 

 name, variety alb us. Another form has the stem white but the cap 

 grayish, yellowish or brown. This is called variety albipes. This 

 variety is sometimes found growing from sawdust in empty ice houses. 

 Its stem in such cases is often elongated. It grows in the dark as well 

 as in the light. 



