North American species of Lactarius / L. R. Hesler, Alexander H. Smith.

380

North American Species of Lactarius

Stipe 5 cm long, 20 mm thick, sharply tapering downward, color
and markings similar to pileus but with more white intermixed, hollow, white within except at the base where it is lilac-tinted.
Spores (from sections) 9-10.5 X 7.5-9,u (excluding ornamentation), subglobose to broadly ellipsoid, with an indistinct plage typically lacking diffuse amyloid material; ornamented with ridges of
variable height occasionally branching but not forming a complete
reticulum (mostly just a broken one); prominences 2-2.5,1 high.
Basidia ~ 45-52 X 11-12 yu, 4-spored. Pleurocystidia: macrocystidia 52-75 X 7.5-10,t, broadly fusoid, acute or with a subapical
constriction; pseudocystidia rare (not observed in type). Cheilocystidia
37-52 X 6-8 fi, fusoid, acute. Gill trama not reviving well, slightly granular content in lactifers; no rosettes observed. Pileus cuticle an ixolattice to ixocutis, hyphae narrow, cells uninflated, septate, branching,
slime present, hyphal incrustations visible in H20 (acidified) but none
seen in Melzer's. Stipe not revived well; context weakly heteromerous. Stipe cuticle a cutis of tangled hyphae with some free ends as
caulocystidia, in Melzer's a thin layer of slime over the surface in
places (the scrobiculi?).
Habit, habitat, and distribution.-On soil, in woods, New York,
September.
Observations.-Murrill (1916) stated that in general appearance
it resembled L. maculatus Peck but the latex of the latter is acrid and
is white changing to lilac. The description of macroscopic features
above is taken from Murrill's account. That of the microscopic details
is based on our study of the type. The spores with their prominent ornamentation and large size connect the species, possibly, to section
Violaceo-Maculati, but the color change is aberrant for that section.
Its spore characters also readily distinguish it from subsection
Croceini.
We have three collections which belong here. Hesler 23078 consisted of a number of fruit bodies. The younger ones have + globose
spores whereas the older ones have slightly larger more ellipsoid
spores. The yellow stains appeared on the stipe in some of this material, but apparently there is no ~ prompt yellow stain as in typical
members of the Croceini. The following is a description of our material to
supplement the original.
Pileus 2-7 cm broad, convex young, soon with margin arched
and disc depressed, surface glabrous, covered by a persistent slime
layer, disc "cinnamon-drab," elsewhere "light grayish olive," "drab"
or "hair-brown" (medium gray with tinge of brown over disc), becoming paler in age, margin sometimes crenate or wavy, usually azonate,
at times faintly zoned. Context firm, paler than pileus surface. Latex
white or whey-like, scanty; taste mild.