Agaricaceae 



Lactarius. Spores subglobose, rather irregular, 6-8/x C.B.P.; broadly elliptical, 

 echinulate, 7x56^ Massee. 



Eaten on the continent and Nova Scotia. Edible. Cooke. 

 North Carolina, Curtis; New England, Frost; Ohio, Morgan. 



L. pipera'tus Fr. piper, pepper. (Plate XLI, fig. i , p. 160.) Pileus 

 4-9 in. broad, white, fleshy, rigid, umbilicate when young, reflexed (mar- 

 gin at first involute) at the circumference, when full grown wholly funnel- 

 shaped, for the most part regular, even, smooth, zoneless. Flesh white. 

 Stem 1-2 in. long, 1-2 in. thick, solid, obese, equal or obconical, even, 

 obsoletely pruinose, white. Grills decurrent, crowded, narrow, scarcely 

 broader than I line, obtuse at the edge, dividing by pairs, arcuate then 

 all extended upward in a straight line, white, here and there with yellow 

 spots. Milk white, unchangeable, plentiful and very acrid. 



Compact, firm, dry, inodorous. The pileus becomes obsoletely yellow 

 when old. Although the gills are spotted with yellow, they do not 

 change to straw color like those of L. pergamenus. Fries. 



Spores white, nearly smooth, 6.37.6^ Peck; subglobose, 8 9/u. dia- 

 meter Massee; 5x6/A W.G.S. 



Pennsylvania, West Virginia, 1881-1885. New Jersey, Pennsylvania 

 in woods and on grassy places. July to October. Mcllvaine. 



Edible. Curtis. 



L. piperatus is a readily distinguished species. It is very common. 

 In 1 88 1, after an extensive forest fire in the West Virginia forests, I saw 

 miles of the blackened district made white by a growth of this fungus. 

 It was the phenomenal growth which first attracted my attention to 

 toadstools. I collected it then in quantity and used it, with good results, 

 as a fertilizer on impoverished ground. 



It has been eaten for many years in most countries, yet a few writers 

 continue to warn against it. It is the representative fungus of its class 

 meaty, coarse, fair flavor. It is edible and is good food when one is 

 hungry and can not get better. It is best used as an absorbent of 

 gravies. 



L. decepti'vus Pk. deceiving. Pileus 3-5 in- broad, compact, at 

 first convex and umbilicate, then expanded and centrally depressed or 

 subinfundibuliform, obsoletely tomentose or glabrous except on the mar- 

 gin, white or whitish, often varied with yellowish or sordid stains, the 



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