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EDIBLE AND POISONOUS MUSHROOMS OF CANADA
color present on the stipe, young lamellae, and pileus, and several varieties and
forms have been recognized on this basis. The collections in the herbarium of
the Plant Research Institute can be placed in two groups depending on spore
size. In one group the spores are as noted above, and Smith (1944) considers
this to be the typical form. In the other group the spores are smaller, 10-13 X
6-7.5 M, and Smith would call these C. collinitus v. trivialis (Lange) Smith.
CORTINARIUS SEMISANGUINEUS (Fr.) Gillet Probably edible
Figure 261, page 173
PILEUS %-2i/2 in. broad, fleshy, campanulate-convex, subumbonate, in
age becoming expanded, tawny yellow to cinnamon-yellow, silky to delicately
fibrillose-scaly, margin even, sometimes sphtting in age. flesh yellowish white,
odor and taste mild, lamellae adnate to sHghtly decurrent, close to crowded,
narrow, blood-red. stipe l-lYi in. long, Vg-W ii^- thick, equal, yellow, tawnyfibrillose,
soHd. spores brown, elliptical, nearly smooth, shghtly rough under
high magnification, 5-8 X 3.5-5.0 m-
In groups in moist swamps or sphagnum. Aug.-Oct.
This is a typical member of the section Dermocybe, and is recognized by
the combination of blood-red lamellae and yellowish pileus and stipe. In
C cinnabarinus Fr. the pileus and stipe as well as the lamellae are blood-red.
C. croceofolius Peck has bright orange lamellae and C. cinnamomeus Fr. has
yellow lamellae. C. semisanguineus appears to be the commonest species of
the group in the Ottawa district at least. Members of this group are probably
all edible but there does not seem to be much definite information about them
available.
CORTINARIUS VIOLACEUS (L.) Kummer Edible
Figure 263, page 173
PILEUS 2-5 in. broad, fleshy, convex, obtuse, finally becoming plane or
sHghtly umbonate, dark violet, sometimes metallic shining, covered with small
erect tufts or scales, margin fibrillose or fringed, flesh thick, firm, violet-gray
to dark violet, not turning purple when bruised, odor and taste mild, lamel-
lae adnate, becoming adnexed, broad, subdistant, dark violet, stipe 21/2-5 in.
long, %-l in. thick above, wider below, clavate to bulbous, fibrillose, dark
violet, violaceous within, spores rusty cinnamon, broadly eUipsoid, rough,
12-17 X 7-10 M.
Singly or scattered on the ground in coniferous forests. Aug.-Oct.
This species is not very common but has been included because it is one of
the most strikingly beautiful of the mushrooms. The dark violet colors and
erect scales are very characteristic. It is considered to be the type species of the
genus Cortinarius
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