128 EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



name of " purple " is probably local in its application, 

 as it is known also as the red Russula, neither of 



which titles is at all distinctive. In- 

 Color of cap deed, the color of the cap is often a mis- 

 misleading leading character for identification, as a 



given species may vary greatly in this 

 particular. This feature is thus generally omitted in 

 purely scientific descriptions, more dependence being 

 placed upon the tint of the flesh and that of the spore 

 surface, the laminae or gills, which are more perma- 

 nent and reliable as a character. Thus, in the present 

 species, R. lepida, the tint of the pileus or cap is often 

 of a deep dull purplish red or ruddy wine color. An- 

 other authority describes it as violet -red and cherry- 

 red or slightly tawny, paler at circumference. Berke- 

 ley, in his British Fungi, omits any reference to the 

 color of the cap, as evidently of little value in identifi- 

 cation. But from numerous examples gathered by 

 the present writer, the color may, I think, be safely 



averaged under the general hue of dark, 



Specific subdued red inclining to maroon. The 



characters surface is dull, as with a fine dust or 



plum-like bloom, and thus without pol- 

 ish. Occasional specimens appear almost velvety in 

 the sheen of surface. But the tints of the flesh and 

 the gills are always uniform, the leaflets or gills being 

 pure white or very slightly creamy, continuous from 

 stem to rim or occasionally forked, not crowded, 

 curved in outline in open specimen, with broadest 

 width near the circumference of cap. The flesh is 

 white or slightly creamy, firm and compact as in the 

 former species, with the same variations of outline 



