38 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



smooth, solid, white or whitish. They are crowded or even attached 

 to each other at the base. 



They may appear at any time from June to October if the 

 weather is sufficiently rainy. The taste, though not acrid, is some-: 

 times slightly disagreeable in the raw state, and unless thoroughly 

 cooked the disagreeable flavor may not be wholly dispelled in pre- 

 paring the caps for the table. This has given rise to different 

 opinions concerning its edibility. One correspondent declares that 

 he considers it one of the best mushrooms. Another thinks it 

 unfit to eat. My first trials of it were not satisfactory. More 

 recent ones lead me to place it among our edible species though 

 it is scarcely to be considered first-class. 



Lactarius aquifluus Pk. 



WATERY MILK LACTARIUS 



PLATE Il8, FIG. 1-6 



Pileus fleshy, fragile, convex or nearly plane, at length centrally 

 depressed, sometimes with a small umbo, glabrous or slightly and 

 minutely tomentose, burnt sienna red when young and moist, paler 

 grayish buff or subochraceous when dry, flesh colored nearly like the 

 pileus, milk watery, taste mild or tardily acrid ; lamellae thin, close, 

 adnate or slightly decurrent, yellowish ; stem equal or slightly taper- 

 ing upward, glabrous or subpruinose, hollow, paler than the pileus ; 

 spores subglobose, .0003-00035 of an inch in diameter (8-9,"-). 



The watery milk lactarius grows in mossy swamps or wet places, 

 rarely as a short stem variety, L a c t a r i u s aquifluus 

 brevissimus Pk., in black muck soil in old roads in woods. 

 The plants are generally gregarious but sometimes tufted. The- 

 cap is 2-4 inches broad, the stem 1-4 inches long and 4-8 lines thick. 

 It is moist or subhygrophanous in wet weather and even in dry 

 weather when growing in wet places. 



The color of the cap is at first yellowish red, but this soon 

 changes to a grayish or pale ochraceous color as the moisture es- 

 capes. The flesh is colored similar to the pileus. The milk is scant 

 and watery in appearance. The taste is mild or slowly and slightly 

 acrid. The odor in the fresh plant is weak but agreeable. It be- 

 comes stronger in the dried plant and persists a long time. It 

 is not always entirely destroyed even in cooking. It resembles the 

 odor of melilot and is similar to that of Lactarius g 1 y c i o s - 

 mus Fr. and Lactarius camphoratus (Bull.) Fr. The 



