Agaricaceae 



(Plate XLIII.) 



LACTARIUS SUBDULCIS. 



Lactarius. California, H '. and M . 



Edible. Cooke. Eaten on the continent. 



L. SllMuTcis Fr. sub; dulcis, sweet. PileilS .5-2 in. broad, thin, 



convex, then plane or slightly funnel- 

 shaped, with or without a small umbo 

 or papilla, glabrous, even, zoneless, 

 moist or dry, tawny-red, cinnamon- 

 red or brownish-red, the margin 

 sometimes wavy or flexuous. Gills 

 rather narrow, thin, close, whitish, 

 sometimes tinged with red. Stem 

 1-2.5 in. long, 1-3 lines thick, equal 

 or slightly tapering upward, slender, 

 glabrous, sometimes villous at the 



base, stuffed or hollow, paler than or colored like the pileus. Spores 

 7.6 9/A. Milk white, taste mild or tardily and slightly acrid, sometimes 

 woody or bitterish and unpleasant. Flesh whitish, pinkish or reddish 

 gray, odor none. 



Fields, copses, woods, swamps and wet places. July to October. 

 Very common. 



This species grows in almost every variety of soil and locality. It 

 may be found in showery weather on dry, rocky soil, on bare ground 

 or among mosses or fallen leaves. In drier weather it is still plentiful 

 in swamps and wet, shaded places, and in sphagnous marshes. It some- 

 times grows on decaying wood. It is also as variable as it is common. 

 Gillet has described the following varieties : 



Var. cinnamo 'meus . Pileus cinnamon-red, sub-shining. Stem stuffed, 

 then hollow; taste mild, becoming slightly acrid or bitter. 



Var. ru'fus. Pileus dull chestnut-red; becoming more concave. 

 Stem spongy; taste mild. 



Var. badius. Pileus bay-red, shining as if varnished, with an obtuse 

 disk and an inflexed, elegantly crenulate margin. Stem very glabrous, 

 hollow. 



The first and second varieties have occurred within our limits. The 

 first also has the stem elastic and furnished with a whitish or grayish 

 tomentum or strigose villosity at the base, when growing among moss 

 in swamps. A form occurred in Sandlake, in which some of the speci- 



182 



