96 



Mycologia 



which I had sent him were not acrid. During the following 

 season I tested these in all stages and found the taste in all cases 

 to be sweet and nutty, reminding one of the taste of beechnuts. 

 The spores of Russula pulchra appear white except in mass on 

 white paper when they show cream- white. Under the micro- 

 scope, the spores appear much rougher than spores of R. uncialis 

 Pk. The color of the spores in mass will serve to distinguish the 

 species from R. subvelutina Pk. 



Russula perplexa sp. nov. 

 Pileus becoming centrally depressed to infundibuliform, up to 

 7 cm. broad; surface Acouje-red to Dragon's blood-red or salmon- 

 buff with amaranth-purple intermixed in the center, or even 

 salmon-buff in the center to Apricot-yellow or coral-pink else- 

 where, viscid when wet, cuticle separable nearly to the center, 

 pruinose, otherwise glabrous ; margin tuberculate-striate, in- 

 rolled; context white, thin toward the margin, mild, without 

 special odor when fresh but sour in drying, fragile ; lamellae 

 white, equal, simple, margin entire, broadest at outer end, adnate, 

 close, thin, pruinose ; stipe white washed with red, tapering down- 

 ward, becoming hollow, 7.5 cm. long by 5 mm. thick ; spores white, 

 echinulate, ellipsoid, apiculate, 10 X 7-5 p including the apex. 



Type Locality : Stow, Massachusetts. 



Habitat : Mixed woods in a swamp, gregarious to solitary, 

 July 30 to September 14. 



Relationship and Characteristics: This species belongs in 

 the Purpurinae group. It differs from R. uncialis Pk. in its larger 

 size, infundibuliform pileus, and pronounced tuberculate-striate 

 margin; from R. purpurina it differs in the edge of the lamellae 

 being even, and the lamellae not becoming yellow with age, and 

 scarcely so in drying; from R. Linnaei Fr. in the viscid, pruinose 

 pileus, in the simple lamellae which do not become yellow, and 

 the tuberculate-striate margin. It differs from all of these in 

 the sour odor which develops during drying. 



It is about the size and texture of R. fragiliformis Burl, and 

 may be recognized by the somewhat vinous-red color, with or 

 without buff color, the infundibuliform mature pileus, the mild 

 taste, and white spores. 



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