OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
140 
2. Receptacle fleshy, trama vesiculose and traversed hy laticiferous vessels. 
Spores white or yellow. 
A. Lal'ex watery, imcoloured. 
RUSSULA Fv. 
(L., russulus, reddish.) 
“Pilous fleshy, regular. Stem central, fleshy. Gills adnate, sinuato-adnate, 
adnexed, free or decurrent , rigid, fragile, edges acute. Spores white or yellow, 
rarely greenish : globose, subglobose or elliptical; echinulate, verrueose, sub- 
reticulate or with anastomosing ridges and spines; continuous. Cystidia present 
or absent. Growing on the ground, rarely on wood.” — Rea. 
In the genera Russula- and Lactarkts, the trama or fleshy substance of the 
pileus is found microscopically to be composed mostly of large vesiculose or 
bladder-like cells. As a consequence of their architecture, the plants are more 
or less rigid hut brittle, a point that is helpful in distinguishing them in the 
held from other agarics. Lactarkts exudes from its rigid gills and substance a 
milky or coloured juice when broken, whereas there is no such juice in Smssula. 
The spores in both genera are spherical or approach this shape, are in most cases 
definitely rough or winded, and are white or yellowish. In Russula, brilliant 
colours are often present, some of our most beautiful species showing shades of 
purple, crimson, rosy pink, green, blue or yellow; others are whitish nr brownish 
and some of the white species are characterised by turning blackish as they dry. 
In some species the cap is viscid when moist, and often the cutjele can be 
readily peeled off. Striatums, which may be tuberculate, mav he present near 
the edge of the pileus. The rigid gills may he forked and the interspaces may 
he veined; they may nearly all Vie of the same length or alternately long and 
short; their shape at the two ends may be characteristic of species. The stem 
is usually whitish, rigid and stout. The taste may vary from intensely acrid 
to mild. 
Species of Russula are relatively common in the Mount Lofty Ranges, R. Marine 
having a beautiful crimson to purplish pileus and a rosy stem with whitish gills, 
and R. p-urpitreo-flava being similarly tinted but with yellow gills. Whitish and 
brown species are less common. Many species of Russula are edible but so far 
the Australian species have not been tested. All our South Australian forms are 
mild in taste hut doubtless acrid ones will later be found. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES. 
l’ileus milk white with rusty stains 227. Russula delicti. 
Pileus opaque white then pale smoky brown. Gills 
adnate, very close. Stem white. Flesh drying 
black 221). R. udusta. 
Pileus white or slightly brownish, large. Gills adnate 
to subdecurrent, creamy white becoming rufeseent. 
Emerging from the soil 227A. R. rrutnptutx. 
Pileus huff-coloured. 
Pileus pinkish fawn, reddish-orange or buff- 
orange. Stem reddish-brown to pinkish buff . . 22, S. R. Flacldtmac. 
Pileus warm buff. Stem white 231. R. Cheelii. 
Pileus pallid brownish-white with greyish -green blotches. 230. R. cyafUOmn-tlui. 
Pileus yellowish-brown, edge tubercular-striate. Stem 
white. Taste becoming slightly peppery 232. R. pectinatoid.es. 
Pileus pallid blotched with brownish-vermilion .. .. 233. R. xcranupelina. 
Pileus purplish to crimson. Taste mild. 
Stem rosy. 
Gills white or cream 234. R. Marine. 
Gills yellow 236. R. purpureo-flava. 
Stem white 235. R. persanguiuea. 
Pileus with greenish tints 237. R. viridis. 
