RUSSULA Pers.

The species of Russula are very characteristic, and the genus is easily recognized in most cases after a little experience. In the very brittle texture of the plants the genus resembles Lactarius, and many of them are more brittle than the species of this genus. A section of the pileus shows under the microscope a similar vesicular condition, that is the grouping of large rounded cells together, with threads between. But the species of Russula are at once separated from those of Lactarius by the absence of a juice which exudes in drops from bruised parts of Lactarius. While some of the species are white and others have dull or sombre colors, many of the species of Russula have bright, or even brilliant colors, as red, purple, violet, pink, blue, yellow, green. In determining many of the species, however, it is necessary to know the taste, whether mild, bitter, acrid, etc., and in this respect the genus again resembles Lactarius. The color of the gills as well as the color of the spores in mass should also be determined. The genus is quite a large one, and the American species are not well known, the genus being a difficult one. In Jour. Mycolog., 5: 58–64, 1889, the characters of the tribes of Russula with descriptions of 25 species are quoted from Stevenson, with notes on their distribution in N. A. by MacAdam.

Russula alutacea Fr. Edible.—This handsome Russula differs from the others described here in the color of the gills and spores. The plant is common and occurs in mixed woods during the summer and early autumn. It is 5–10 cm. high, the cap 5–12 cm. broad, and the stem 1.5–2.5 cm. in thickness.

The pileus is fleshy, oval to bell-shaped, becoming plane, and sometimes umbilicate. It is red or blood red in color, sometimes purple, and becoming pale in age, especially at the center. It is viscid when moist, the margin thin and striate-tuberculate. The gills are free from the stem, stout, broad, first white, becoming yellow, and in age ochraceous. The gills are all of the same length, not crowded, and they are connected by vein-like elevations over the surface. The stem is stout, solid, even, white, portions of the stem are red, sometimes purple.

The taste is mild, and the plant is regarded as one of the very good ones for food.

Russula lepida Fr. Edible.—This elegant Russula occurs in birch woods or in mixed woods during late summer and autumn. It is 5–8 cm. high, the cap 6–8 cm. broad, and the stem 1–2 cm. in thickness.

The pileus is fleshy, convex, then expanded, obtuse, not shining, deep red, becoming pale in age, often whitish at the center, silky, in age the surface cracking, the margin blunt and not striate. The gills are rounded next the stem, thick, rather crowded, and sometimes forked, white, sometimes red on the edge near the margin of the pileus. The gills are often connected by vein-like elevations over the surface. The stem is equal, white or rose color. The taste is mild.

Russula virescens (Schaeff.) Fr. Edible.—This plant grows on the ground in woods or in grassy places in groves from July to September. The stem is short, 2–7 cm. long × 1–2 cm. thick, and the cap is 5–10 cm. broad. The plant is well known by the green color of the pileus and by the surface of the pileus being separated into numerous, quite regular, somewhat angular areas or patches, where the green color is more pronounced.

The pileus is first rounded, then convex and expanded, and when old somewhat depressed in the center. It is quite firm, dry, greenish, and the surface with numerous angular floccose areas or patches of usually a deeper green. Sometimes the pileus is said to be tinged with yellow. The gills are adnate, nearly free from the stem, and crowded. The stem is white and firm.

The greenish Russula, Russula virescens, like a number of other plants, has long been recommended for food, both in Europe and in this country. There are several species of Russula in which the pileus is green, but this species is readily distinguished from them by the greenish floccose patches on the surface of the pileus. Russula furcata is a common species in similar situations, with forked gills, and the cap very variable in color, sometimes reddish, purple, purple brown, or in one form green. I know of the Russula furcata having been eaten in rather small quantities, and while in this case no harm resulted the taste was not agreeable.

Russula fragilis (Pers.) Fr.—This plant is very common in damp woods, or during wet weather from July to September. It is a small plant and very fragile, as its name suggests, much more so than most other species. It is 2–4 cm. high, the cap 2–5 cm. broad, and the stem about 1 cm. in thickness.

The pileus is convex, sometimes slightly umbonate, then plane, and in age somewhat depressed. The cuticle peels off very easily. The color is often a bright red, or pink, sometimes purple or violet, and becomes paler in age. It is somewhat viscid when moist, and the margin is very thin and strongly striate and tuberculate, i. e., the ridges between the marginal furrows are tuberculate. The gills are lightly adnexed, thin, crowded, broad, all of the same length, white. The stem is usually white, sometimes more or less pink colored, spongy within, becoming hollow. The taste is very acrid.

Russula emetica Fr. Poisonous.—This Russula has a very wide distribution and occurs on the ground in woods or open places during summer and autumn. It is a beautiful species and very fragile. The plants are 5–10 cm. high, the cap 5–10 cm. broad, and the stem 1–2 cm. in thickness. The pileus is oval to bell-shaped when young, becoming plane, and in age depressed. It is smooth, shining, the margin furrowed and tuberculate. The color is from pink or rosy when young to dark red when older, and fading to tawny or sometimes yellowish in age. The cuticle is easily separable as in R. fragilis, the flesh white, but reddish just beneath the cuticle. The gills are nearly free, broad, not crowded, white. The stem is stout, spongy within, white or reddish, fragile when old.

The plant is very acrid to the taste and is said to be poisonous, and to act as an emetic.

Russula adusta (Pers.) Fr.—This plant occurs on the ground in woods during late summer and in autumn. It is 3–6 cm. high, the cap 5–15 cm. broad, and the stem is 1–1.5 cm. in thickness.

The pileus is fleshy, firm, convex, depressed at the center, and when old more or less funnel-shaped from the upturning of the margin, which is at first incurved and smooth. It varies from white to gray and smoky color. The gills are adnate, or decurrent, thin, crowded, of unequal lengths, white, then becoming dark. The stem is colored like the pileus. The entire plant becomes darker in drying, sometimes almost black. It is near Russula nigricans, but is smaller, and does not have a red juice as R. nigricans has.

CANTHARELLUS Adanson.

From the other white-spored agarics of a fleshy consistency Cantharellus is distinguished by the form of the gills. The gills are generally forked, once or several times, in a dichotomous manner, though sometimes irregularly. They are blunt on the edge, not acute as in most of the other genera. The gills are usually narrow and in many species look like veins, folds, or wrinkles, but in some species, as in Cantharellus aurantiacus, they are rather thin and broad.

Figure 126.—Cantharellus cibarius. Under view showing forked gills with veins connecting them. Entire plant rich chrome yellow (natural size).

Cantharellus cibarius Fr. Edible.—This plant is known as the chanterelle. It has a very wide distribution and has long been regarded as one of the best of the edible mushrooms. Many of the writers on fungi speak of it in terms of high praise. The entire plant is a uniform rich chrome yellow. Sometimes it is symmetrical in form, but usually it is more or less irregular and unsymmetrical in form. The plants are 5–10 cm. high, the cap 4–8 cm. broad, and the stem short and rather thick.

Plate 41, Figure 127.—Cantharellus aurantiacus. Color orange yellow, and cap varies ochre, raw sienna, tawny, in different specimens (natural size). Copyright.

The pileus is fleshy, rather thick, the margin thick and blunt and at first inrolled. It is convex, becoming expanded or sometimes depressed by the margin of the cap becoming elevated. The margin is often wavy or repand, and in irregular forms it is only produced at one side, or more at one side than at the other, or the cap is irregularly lobed. The gills are very narrow, stout, distant, more or less sinuous, forked or anastomosing irregularly, and because of the pileus being something like an inverted cone the gills appear to run down on the stem. The spores are faintly yellowish, elliptical, 7–10 µ. Figure [126] represents but a single specimen, and this one with a nearly lateral pileus.

Figure 128.—Cantharellus aurantiacus, under view, enlarged nearly twice, showing regularly forked gills.

Cantharellus aurantiacus Fr.—This orange cantharellus is very common, and occurs on the ground or on very rotten wood, logs, branches, etc., from summer to very late autumn. It is widely distributed in Europe and America. It is easily known by its dull orange or brownish pileus, yellow gills, which are thin and regularly forked, and by the pileus being more or less depressed or funnel-shaped. The plants are from 5–8 cm. high, the cap from 2–7 cm. broad, and the stem about 4–8 mm. in thickness.

The pileus is fleshy, soft, flexible, convex, to expanded, or obconic, plane or depressed, or funnel-shaped, the margin strongly inrolled when young, in age simply incurved, the margin plane or repand and undulate. The color varies from ochre yellow to dull orange, or orange ochraceous, raw sienna, and tawny, in different specimens. It is often brownish at the center. The surface of the pileus is minutely tomentose with silky hairs, especially toward the center, and sometimes smooth toward the margin. The flesh is 3–5 mm. at the center, and thin toward the margin. The gills are arcuate, decurrent, thin, the edge blunt, but not so much so as in a number of other species, crowded, regularly forked several times, at length ascending when the pileus is elevated at the margin. The color of the gills is orange to cadmium orange, or sometimes paler, cadmium yellow or deep chrome. The stem is clay color to ochre yellow, enlarged below, spongy, stuffed, fistulose, soft, fibrous, more or less ascending at the base.

The taste is somewhat nutty, sometimes bitterish. The plants in Fig. [127] (No. 3272, C. U. herbarium) were collected near Ithaca, October 7, 1899.