44 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



zoneless, tawny red, bay red or cinnamon red, flesh whitish, often 

 tinged wilh red, taste slightly or tardily acrid, milk white, un- 

 changeable; lamellae thin, close, adnate or slightly decurrent, 

 whitish, pallid or rnfescent; stem short, equal or tapering up- 

 ward, stuffed or hollow, glabrous, colored like or a little paler 

 than the pileus; spores white, globose, .0003-.00035 of an inch 

 broad. 



The sweet lactarius is one of our most common species. It is 

 rather small, but it often grows in sufficient abundance to com- 

 pensate for its deficiency in size. It is gregarious in its mode 

 of growth and occurs in a great variety of soil and location. It 

 may be found in woods and in open places, on naked soil or 

 among fallen leaves or growing from decaying wood or among 

 living mosses. In dry weather, when it can no longer be found in 

 exposed dry places, it still persists in swamps, sphagnous marshes 

 and wet, shaded places. It appears from June to October. 



Its cap is generally broadly convex or nearly plane, but some- 

 times by the elevation of the margin it becomes centrally de- 

 pressed or almost funnel-form. Usually there is a small promi- 

 nence or umbo in the center, but often this is entirely absent. 

 The surface is quite smooth and sometimes moist and shining. 

 Its color varies from light red or yellowish red to bay red. The 

 margin is sometimes wavy or lobed. The gills are thin, narrow, 

 closely placed and vary in color from whitish to rufescent, re- 

 sembling the cap in color. The stem may be short or long accord- 

 ing to its place of growth. When growing among mosses, it is 

 apt to be longer than on bare ground. Sometimes there is a 

 coarse villosity or hairiness at the base of the stem, otherwise it 

 is smooth. It is generally hollow and brittle. In color it is 

 similar to or a little paler than the cap. The white milk does not 

 change color, and the taste varies somewhat, being in some cases 

 almost mild, in others tardily but decidedly acrid. 



The cap is usually 1-2 inches broad; the stem 1-2.5 inches 

 long, 1-3 lines thick. The acrid taste is lost in cooking, and 

 when fried in butter it may be regarded as a fairly good though 

 not highly flavored mushroom. Several varieties of this variable 

 species have been described, but a well marked one, of which I 



