Mycological Bulletin 



No. 80 



IV. A. KcUcrman. Ph. D., Ohio State University. 

 Coiumbns. Oliio, August, 1907. 



. New YORK 



BOTANICAL 



A LACTARIOUS NUMBER. QARDBN 



Those interesting muFhrooms that exude a milky or colored 

 juice — shall we call them Lactaria as Persoon did in 1797, or Lac- 

 tarius, as the great mycologist Fries did between forty and fifty 

 years later, and which name has been in continuous use since? — 

 Well, these Lactariac or the Lactarii will take precedence in this 

 No. of the lUdletin. We have previously published a portrait of 

 only one Lactarius as follows: Lactarius volemus (p. 219). 



No additional photographs are at hand and we call on our 

 subscribers for help. P>ut we find recent articles by Miss Bur- 

 lingham. a student of these plants in Columbia University, New 

 York, most apropos and therefore levy tribute on her, see below. 



NOTES FROM MUSHROOM LITERATURE. VI. 

 w. .\. kp:li.erm.\n. 



A very interesting and very usel"ul article containing "Suggestions for 

 the Study of the Lactariae," l)y (iertrude Simmons Burlingham, is pub- 

 h'shcd in the June number of Torrcya. 



It will be noticed that the author adopts the name Lactaria, which 

 she says was used by Persoon in j7i)7, thus antedating the Lactarius of 

 Fries by nearly half a century. 



A large portion will be copied, regretting only that we have not space 

 enough for the entire article. The introductory part is as follows : 



"There are only a few species of Lactaria which can be identified 

 positively from dried specimens in the absence of field-notes. Further- 

 more, one who is not more or less familiar with the distinguishing char- 

 acteristics of the species in tliis genus may make seemingly ample notes 

 and yet omit some of the vital points, with the result that much otherwise 

 valuable material becomes w()rthle.^s or even misleading. Any such waste 

 ^ of time and material is especially lamentable in view of the fact that only 

 ^ a few scattered regions in the United States have been explored at all 

 ^' for any genus of the fleshy fungi. Approximately ninety species and 

 varieties of Lactaria have been reported from the United States, fifty 



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