Other species are accounted edible, even one—the peppery Lactarius, L. piperatus—a pure-white variety, whose copious exudations of white milk will almost blister the lips, an acrid property which is claimed by Curtis, Smith, and others to be dispelled in cooking, by which treatment it becomes delicious and wholesome.
This species may reach a diameter of seven inches, its shape at first rounded, convex, then flat, concave, and finally funnel-shaped, as in many of the species. But its decidedly ardent tang in the raw state, as reminiscent from my own experience, warns me not to dwell too enthusiastically upon its merits in my limited selection of desirable esculent species.
THE CHANTARELLE
Cantharellus cibarius
Fluted gills
Bearing somewhat the shape of the Lactarius, but having its own distinguishing features, is the Chantarelle (Plate 19).
The "Agarics," as already described on [page 79], are distinguished by the feature of the gills, or thin laminated curtains—the hymenium—upon which the spores are produced, and from which they are shed beneath the mushroom. These gills vary in thickness and number in the various species, and in one genus are so short, thick, swollen, and branched as to give rather the effect of turgid veins than gills, as shown in the accompanying sectional drawing. We occasionally come upon one of these mushrooms in our walks, usually in the woods. When it first appears the cap is rounded, and the rim folded inward towards the stem; but in mature specimens it assumes the flat or, later, the cup-shaped form shown in Plate 19.
