Frequent in the West Virginia forests, 1881–1885. Chester county, Pa., 1887–1890. In mixed woods. July to September. _McIlvaine._ It differs from R. vesca in its cap being minutely granulated instead of streaked, and in becoming acrid with age. The caps are of good quality, needing to be well cooked. FRA´GILES. * _Gills and spores white._ =R. eme´tica= Fr.—an emetic. (Plate XLIV, fig. 2, p. 184.) =Pileus= 3–4 in. broad, at first rosy then _blood-color_, tawny when old, sometimes becoming yellow and at length (in moist places) white, at first bell-shaped then flattened or depressed, polished, _margin_ at length _furrowed and tubercular_. =Flesh= _white, reddish under the separable pellicle_. =Stem= spongy-stuffed, stout, elastic when young, fragile when older, even, white or reddish. =Gills= somewhat _free_, broad, somewhat distant, shining white. Handsome, regular, moderately firm, but fragile when full grown, _taste_ very _acrid_. _Fries._ =Spores= shining white, _Fries_; spheroid, echinulate, 8–10µ _K._; 7µ _W.G.S._ Maryland, _Miss Banning_; New York, _Peck_, Rep. 22; Indiana, Illinois, _H.I. Miller_. Said to act as its name implies as an emetic. Certainly poisonous. _Stevenson._ Krapp says he has himself experienced rare inconveniences from eating it. Preferred to others in Indiana and Illinois. _H.I. Miller_, 1898. The varying reports upon R. emetica are quoted above. In 1881, in the West Virginia mountains, I began testing this Russula and soon found that it was harmless. At least twenty persons ate it in quantity, during its season, for four years. Yet, in my many published articles, I continued, out of regard for the opinions of others and in excess of caution, to warn against all bitter and peppery fungi. But from that time until the present I have eaten it, and I have made special effort to establish its innocence by getting numbers of my friendly helpers to eat it. It was suggested by one of its prosecutors that perhaps I was mistaking another fungus for it. In October, 1898, I sent to Professor Peck a lot of the Russula I was eating. He wrote: “It seems to be R. emetica as you state. It certainly is hot enough for it.” =R. pectina´ta= Fr.—_pecten_, a comb. =Pileus= 3 in. broad, at first gluey, _toast-brown_, then dry, becoming pale, tan, with the _disk_ always _darker_, fleshy, _rigid_, convex then flattened and depressed or concavo-infundibuliform (basin-shaped); margin thin, _pectinato-sulcate_ (deeply ribbed), here and there irregularly shaped. =Flesh= _white, light yellowish under the pellicle_, which is not easily separable. =Stem= curt, 3 in. long, ¾–1 in. thick, _rigid_, spongy-stuffed, longitudinally _slightly striate, shining white_, often attenuated at the base. =Gills= _attenuato-free_ behind, broader toward the margin, somewhat crowded, _equal_, simple, white. Odor weak, but nauseous, approaching that of R. f[oe]tens. _Fries._ =Spores= 8–9µ diameter _Massee_.