R. chamæleonti´na Fr.—changing color like a chamæleon. Pileus 1–2 in. broad, thinly fleshy, soon flattened, sometimes oblique with a thin, separable, viscid pellicle, which is at first flesh-color, then presently changing color, becoming yellow at the disk and at length wholly yellow, margin even, then slightly striate. Stem as much as 3 in. long, but thin, somewhat hollow, slightly striate, white. Gills more or less adnexed, thin, crowded, equal, narrow, somewhat forked, light-yellow-ochraceous.
Mild, inodorous, very fragile. Pileus rosy blood-red, purplish lilac, etc. Sometimes even at the first yellowish at the disk. Fries.
Spores globose, ochraceous, 7–8µ diameter Massee.
In pine and in mixed woods. August to October. McIlvaine.
The change in color of the cap which gives name to this species is not remarkable. Most species of Russulæ are sensitive to light. An otherwise highly colored cap will be almost white when a leaf adheres to it. If in youth it grows under dense shade it will be very much lighter than if where light is generous, and will remain so. If in growing it thrusts itself out of shadow, its color will change and it will deepen. The apparent rarity of R. chamæleontina I think due to the close observation necessary to detect its changes in color, which, as I have found it, are by no means constant. It is quite plentiful in the pines of southern New Jersey, and at Mt. Gretna, Pa., it is frequently found.
It is a good esculent species.
CANTHAREL´LUS Adans.
Gr—a vase, a cup.
Hymenophore continuous with the stem, descending unchanged into the trama. Gills thick, fleshy, waxy, fold-like, somewhat branched, obtuse at the edge. Spores white. Fleshy, putrescent fungi, without a veil. Fries.