174 



MUSHROOMS, EDIBLE AND OTHERWISE 



This plant is quite common from September to November, growing in damp 

 weather on leaves in mixed woods. It has a mild taste. While I have not eaten 

 it I have no doubt of its edibility. The color of the pileus is sometimes quite dark. 



Lactarius griseus. Pk. 

 Gray Lactarius. 



Griseus means gray. 



The pileus is thin, nearly plane, 

 broadly umbilicate or centrally de- 

 pressed, sometimes infundibuliform, 

 generally with a small umbo or pa- 

 pilla, minutely squamulose tomen- 

 tose, gray or brownish-gray, becom- 

 ing paler with age. 



The gills are thin, close, adnate, 

 or slightly decurrent, whitish or yel- 

 lowish. 



The stem is slender, equal or 

 slightly tapering upward, rather 



fragile ; stuffed or hollow ; generally villose or tomentose at the base ; paler than, or 

 colored like, the pileus. 



The spores are .0003 to .00035 mcn ; milk white, taste subacrid. 

 Pileus is 6 to 18 lines broad, stem 1 to 2 inches long, 1 to 3 lines thick. Peck. 

 It resembles L. mammosus and L. cinereus. It differs from the former in 

 not having ferruginous gills and pubescent stems, and from the latter by its smaller 

 size, its densely pubescent pileus, and its habitat. It grows on mossy logs or in 

 mossy swamps. The base of one of the plants in Figure 138 is covered with the 

 moss in which they grew. These plants were found in Purgatory Swamp, near 

 Boston, by Mrs. Blackford. They grow from July to September. 



Figure 138. Lactarius griseus. 



Lactarius distans. Pk. 

 The Distant-* '.ii.u:i> Lactarius. Edible. 



I )istans means distant, so called because the gills are very wide apart. 



The pileus is firm, broadly convex or nearly plane, umbilicate or slightly 

 depressed in the center ; with a minute, velvety pruinosity ; yellowish-tawny or 

 brownish-orange. 



