C. purpuras´cens Fr.—gills becoming purple when bruised. Pileus 4–5 in. across, fleshy, disk compact, obtuse, wavy, variable, covered with a dense layer of gluten, but opaque when dry, bay or reddish then tawny-olivaceous, spotted; often depressed round the margin, which is at first incurved then wavy, marked with a raised brown line. Flesh entirely clear blue. Gills broadly emarginate, 3 lines and more broad, crowded, bluish-tan, then cinnamon, violet-purple when bruised. Stem about 3 in. long, ⅔ in. and more thick, solid, bulbous, everywhere fibrillose, intensely pallid clear blue, very compact, juicy, becoming purplish-blue when touched, bulb submarginate. Spores elliptical, 10–12×5–6µ Fries.
Var. subpurpuras´cens. Massachusetts. Frost.
Plentiful in West Virginia mountains in mixed woods, 1882. On South Valley Hill, near Downington, Pa., October, 1887. Haddonfield, N.J., 1892. In woods. September to frost. McIlvaine.
Both stems and caps are juicy when young and of agreeable flavor. It is among the best edible species of Cortinarius.
*** Gills brownish-white, then ferruginous.
C. turbina´tus Fr.—turbo, a top. Pileus unicolorous, dingy-yellow or green, becoming pale, hygrophanous, opaque when dry, fleshy, convex then flattened, obtuse, at length depressed, orbicular, even, smooth, viscid. Flesh soft, white. Stem commonly curt, 2 in., but varying elongated, yellowish, springing from a globoso-depressed distinctly marginate bulb, otherwise equal, cylindrical, stuffed then hollow. Gills attenuato-adnate, thin, crowded, broad, quite entire, at first pallid light-yellowish, at length somewhat ferruginous.
The typical form is regular, distinct from its allies in the hygrophanous pileus, in the gills being isabelline-ferruginous and quite entire, and in being without any dark-purple or purple color. Easily distinguished by its turbinate bulb. Fries.
In woods. Uncommon. Stevenson.
Spores rough, 14–16×7µ; rough, Cooke.
Cap 2–4 in. across. Stem commonly about 2 in. long, sometimes longer. Massee.