117 
LACTARIUS THEIOGALUS Fr. 
One of the common Lactarii which is frequently overlooked in 
this county is L. theiogalus Fr., a firwood species, of a reddish brown 
colour; it is passed over for ZL. subdulcis, serifluus or quietus, a trio 
which those who have studied fungi the longest are the most chary 
about discriminating. In the sulphur coloured milk, however, we 
have a character that at once sufficiently separates the plant under 
discussion, provided time be given to allow the change of colour to 
take place. Growing gregariously in late autumn, often amongst 
short heather, the colour of the pileus, when once recognised, is 
distinctive. It has, when moist, a peculiar liver coloured tint with a 
decided brownish shade. The gills are rather distant and the margin 
of the pileus indented or scolloped where each gill ends; this is best 
seen from beneath. There is no figure in Cooke’s Illustrations - and 
of those quoted by Fries none are distinctive. Bolton t. 9 Is far too 
bright red. Bulliard t. 567, f. 2, is better, and certainly has yellow 
milk, but the infundibuliform pileus is distinctly zoned, and a change 
of colour to yellow is shown in the flesh of section which does not 
Correspond with nature. Krombholz t. 1. f. 23 and 24, does not look 
like the plant at all, while Paulet t. 71 may be anything. Larber 
f. 175% 7, is probably the plant, but Fries does not quote this figure. 
Lactarius chrysorheus is not a firwood species, and is known at once 
by its whitish colour and by the milk Changing immediately to 
golden yellow; whereas in Z. theiogalus the white milk does not 
become yellow until after the lapse of a considerable interval 
twenty minutes or half an hour, and even then the colou 
so deep a yellow. 
The figures are from drawings by Mrs. Carleton Rea, from 
specimens found at Ashwicken, Norfolk, rst No 
Pileus 24-7 cm, across, liver coloured whe 
rufous tawny and lighter at the Margin, convex 
expanded and finally depressed, umbonate, 
wanting, smooth, zoneless, viscous at first ; 
thin; flesh of the pileus palid, then ochraceo 
but thinning out towards the margin. Stem 3 
» perhaps 
r iS never 
, flesh becoming rufous 
especially downwards. Gills adnato-decurrent, each terminating at 
the crenulations of the margin of the pileus, 3-6 mm. broad, thin, 
rather distant, pale then rufescent. Milk white, theh very slowly 
changing to sulphur yellow, mild, then slightly acrid, Spores 6-7 u, 
globose echinulate, 
