The crisp flesh of R. lepida requires forty minutes' slow stewing, if stewed. It yields a delicate pink shade to the dish. Roasted or cooked in a hot buttered pan it is excellent. =R. ru´bra= Fr.—_ruber_, red. =Pileus= unicolorous, a cinnabar-vermilion, but becoming pale (tan) when old, disk commonly darker, compact, hard but fragile, convex, then flattened, here and there depressed, absolutely dry, _without a pellicle, but becoming polished-even_, often sinuously cracked when old, margin spreading, obtuse, even, always persistent. =Flesh= white, _reddish under the cuticle_. =Stem= 2–3 in. long, about 1 in. thick, solid, even, varying white and red. =Gills= obtusely adnate, somewhat crowded, whitish, then yellowish, with dimidiate and forked ones intermixed. Very _acrid_, very hard and rigid, most distinct from all the others of this group in the _pileus becoming polished-even_, although without a pellicle, in the _flesh being somewhat clotted_, and in the _very acrid taste_. =Gills= often red at the edge. _Fries._ =Spores= whitish, _Fries_; spheroid, 8–10µ _K._ Krapp says he has experienced grave inconveniences from eating it. European authorities mark “poisonous.” I do not hesitate to cook it either by itself or with other Russulæ and serve it at my table. It is easier cooked than R. virescens and others of the crisp species, and has equal flavor. =R. Linnæ´i= Fr.—in honor of Linnæus. =Pileus= 3–4 in. broad, unicolorous, dark purple, blood-red or bright rose, opaque, not becoming pale, everywhere fleshy, rigid, plano-depressed, sometimes spread upward, even, smooth, _dry, without a separable pellicle_, margin spreading, obtuse, without striæ. =Flesh= thick, _spongy-compact, white_. =Stem= 1½ in. and more long, 1 in. and more thick, stout, firm, but spongy-soft within, somewhat ventricose, _obsoletely reticulated_ with fibers, intensely blood-red. =Gills= _adnate, somewhat decurrent_, rather thick, not crowded, _broad_ (more than ½ in.), fragile, sparingly connected by veins, white, becoming yellow when dry, with a few dimidiate ones intermixed, somewhat anastomosing behind. _Fries._ =Spores= wholly white, _Fries_; ellipsoid, spheroid, echinulate, 11µ _Q._; 9–11×8–9µ _Massee_. West Virginia, 1881–1885. West Philadelphia, Pa., on Bartram’s Botanic creek. _McIlvaine._ R. Linnæi is one of our handsomest and best Russulæ. European authors state its habit to be exactly that of R. emetica, but though I have known it intimately for many years I have not been struck with this in the American plant. Its large size, its more or less red stem never entirely white, at times hollow, cavernous, its less solid flesh, habit of growing in troops, sometimes parts of rings, flourishing best where the leaf mat is heaviest, loving the leaf drift in fence-corners, are well marked distinctions. When young there is no better Russula. As it ages the stem becomes soft, spongy and should be thrown away. The caps, only, eaten.