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NBW AWD RARE HEREFORDSHIRE AND BRITISH 

 HYMENOMYCETOUS FUNGI. 



By WoRTHiNGTON G. SMITH, Esq., F.L.S. 



During the abnormal summer and autumn of last year (1868) a large 

 number of new British species of Hymenomycetous Fungi appeared in various 

 parts of the country: of these few or none were second in interest to those 

 gathered by different members of the Woolhope Club— Dr. Bull, Dr. M'Cul- 

 lough, the Rev. "W. Houghton, M.A., Edwin Lees, Esq., F.L.S., and J. 

 Griffith Morris, Esq., being especially fortunate. Of these species several remain 

 at present un-named, but I select for description and illustration, first, 



LAGTARIUS CONTROVERSUS, fees. 



This noble addition to our cryptogrammic flora was found by Dr. M'Cul- 

 lough at and near Abergavenny, and by the Rev. E. Du Buisson, at Breinton, 

 and taken by Dr. BuU to the Exhibition of Fungi at the Royal Horticultural 

 Society last October. The specimens sent from Abergavenny grew under poplars 

 about a mile and a half from Abergavenny, and it also grew in great luxu- 

 riance {again under poplars) at Abergavenny, forming a semicircle of some 

 twenty feet in diameter. The specimens were crowded together in great 

 numbers, and several attained a diameter of more than a foot — the specimen 

 selected for illustration was one of the smallest, in order to get it into the plate. 

 In general appearance it considerably resembles other Lactarii as L. velkrem 

 Fr., L. insuhus Fr., &c., but it differs from all in many specific characters; it 

 is highly acrid, and feels and looks soapy. 



Lactakius Controversus, Pers. — Stem stout, swollen, one or two inches 

 long, sometimes eccentric, prviinose at the top, never marked with pits or 

 depressions : gills decurrent, with an obscure tooth : pileus, fleshy, compact, 

 rigid, convex, then depressed and subinfundibulifoi-m : at first dry, but after 

 rain viscid in all its parts : margin at first involute and villous, stem and 

 pileus more or less covered with blood-red spots and smears : flesh very firm, 

 like L. piperatus Fr. : milk very acrid, white, plentiful : odour faint, but 

 pleasant : taste exceedingly acrid. 



