d of a yellowish color,
"resembling the juice of Celandine or the liquid secreted from the mouth
of grasshoppers." Wounds on the plant are first of the color of the
milk, changing on exposure to blue, and finally to green. The plant
occurs during late summer and in the autumn in woods. Peck reported it
first from Saratoga, N. Y. It has been found elsewhere in the State, and
it has probably quite a wide distribution. I found it during September,
1899, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of N. C. Figure 1, plate 39, is from
some of the water color drawings made by Mr. Franklin R. Rathbun.

[Illustration: PLATE 39.

FIG. 1.--Lactarius deliciosus.
FIG. 2.--L. chelidonium.
FIG. 3.--L. indigo.
Copyright 1900.]

=Lactarius indigo= (Schw.) Fr.--The indigo blue lactarius is a very
striking and easily recognized plant because of the rich indigo blue
color so predominant in the entire plant. It is not very abundant, but
is widely distributed in North America. The plant is 5--7 cm. high, the
cap 5--12 cm. broad, and the stem is 1--2 cm. in thickness. The plants
occur during late summer and in the autumn.

The =pileus= when young is umbilicate, the margin involute, and in age
the margin becomes elevated and then the pileus is more or less
funnel-shaped. The indigo blue color is deeply seated, and the surface
of the pileus has a silvery gray appearance through which the indigo
blue color is seen. The surface is marked by concentric zones of a
darker shade. In age the color is apt to be less uniformly distributed,
it is paler, and the zones are fainter. The _gills_ are crowded, and
when bruised, or in age, the indigo blue color changes somewhat to
greenish. The milk is dark blue.

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, pu