Pileus fleshy, firm, with a thin margin which is at first inflexed, then expanded and striate, covered with a thin adnate pellicle. The gills consist of many shorter ones mixed with longer ones, along with others which are forked. Stem solid, stout, spongy within. V.—FRAGILES (_fragilis_, fragile or brittle). Page 201. Pileus more or less fleshy, rigid-fragile, covered with a pellicle which is always continuous, and in wet weather viscid and somewhat separable; margin membranaceous, at first convergent and not involute, in full-grown plants commonly sulcate and tubercular. Flesh commonly floccose, lax, friable. Stem spongy, at length wholly soft and hollow. Gills almost all equal, simple, broadening in front, free in the pileus when closed. Several doubtful forms occur. R. integra is specially fallacious from the variety of its colors. * Gills and spores white. ** Gills and spores white, then light-yellowish or bright lemon-yellowish. *** Gills and spores ochraceous. COMPAC´TÆ. =R. ni´gricans= Bull.—_nigrico_, to be blackish. =Pileus= 2–4 in. and more broad, olivaceous-fuliginous, _at length black_, fleshy to the margin which is at first bent inwards, convex then flattened, umbilicato-depressed, when young and moist slightly viscid and even (without a separable pellicle), at length cracked in scales. =Flesh= firm, white, when broken becoming red on exposure to the air. =Stem= 1 in. thick, persistently solid, equal, pallid when young, _at length black_. =Gills= _rounded_ behind, slightly adnexed, _thick, distant_, unequal, paler, reddening when touched. _Fries._ Compact, obese, inodorous, within and without _at length wholly black_, in which it differs from all others. The flesh becomes red when broken because it is saturated with red juice, although it does not exude milk. Sometimes a very few of the gills are dimidiate. In woods. Common. June to November. _Stevenson._ Var. _albo´nigra_ Krombh.—_albo_, white; _negro_, to be black. =Pileus= fleshy, convexo-plane, depressed in the middle, at length funnel-shaped, viscid, _whitish, smoky about the margin_. =Flesh= white, turning black when broken. =Stem= solid, stout, dusky, becoming blackened. =Gills= decurrent, crowded, unequal, dusky-whitish. In grassy places. =Spores= papillose, 8µ _W.G.S._; subglobose, rough, 8–9µ _Massee_. New York. Our specimens agree with the description in every respect, except that the gills are not distant. _Peck_, 32d Rep. Mild when raw, but with a heavy woody taste. Cooked it makes a good dish, but does not equal most Russulæ.