Friesia IV, 1-2

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Buff") tinged faintly with flesh colour, at length dark chocolate
brown, with sterile, densely light floccose edge. S t e m 6-10 cm X
10-12 mm, cylindrical with round bulbous base, hollow, whitish,
but soon turning grey with the ring, naked above the ring, below it
delicately white floccoso-squamulose. R i n g sheathed and striate
above, f airly rigid, with white squamulose underside, at length
turning grey. F l e s h thin and dry, whitish, paIe crimson ("Pinkish
Vinaceous") and dark purpie ("Deep Hellebore Red") in spots when
cut, especiaIly in the outer layer at the top of the stem and just
above the gills. S m e Il acidulous. S c h a f f e r r e a c t i o n negative.
Spore powder dark brown ("Mummy Brown" ; L. g8; S. 701) .
S P o r e s egg-shaped, l-guttulate, 4.5-6 X 3- 3.5 (- 4) p. B as
i d i a 4-spored, clavate, 20-30 X 5-7 p . S t e r i g m a t a 2-3 p
long. C y s t i d i a on edge very numerous, balloon-shaped-clavate,
hyaline or brown, 17-34 X 7-13(-18) p.
Gregarious in coniferous woods, very common. The stem often
deeply rooted in the needles. August-October.
It would seem that fruit bodies growing on a dry substratum
were used for the original figures of P. silvatica (J. C. S c h a e ff
e r , lcon. t. 242), which, however, in Danish copies of that work,
have a brown to ochraceous colour in the pil eus according with the
description and not, as J u l i u s S c h a f f e r states, a mixture of
green, brown, and white, no doubt aresult of the influence of time
on the colours used in the copy of the work that J. S c h a f f e r
saw (J. S c h a f f e r, Ann. Myc. , 1938, p. 64: "Schuld an diesem
Wirrwarr tragt ohne Zweifel das zwischen weiss, grtin (!) und
braun unbestimmt schwankende Originalbild bei S c h a e f f e r [nach
Beschreibung "pileo ochroleuco"]).
In the recent literature on P. silvatica two different views prevail.
Some authors describe the species as turning strongly red when
broken and regard P. sanguinaria Karsten as identical. Others,
among whom are A. A. Pearson (in lit.), P. Konrad (in lit.),
and Hots on & Stunz (1 938) as well as Alexander H. Smith
(1940) from the U.S.A., hold that the flesh, when broken turns
slowly brown or reddish brown. J a k. E. L a n g e and F e r d i n a n d ­
s e n & W i n g e avoid definitely adopting any of these views by
using the name P. sanguinaria. S e v e r i n P e t e r se n has included
as Danish species (Danske Agaricaceer, p. 381, 1911) both P. sanguinaria
and P. sitvatico; but he has not found the latter himself
and regards it as "en vist noget usikker art" (probably a somewhat
uncertain species). L u n d e Il (Fungi exsiccati Suecici, no. 18, 1934)