now that any one has tested _L. corrugis_ for food.
But since it is so closely related to _L. volemus_ I tested it during
the summer of 1899 in the North Carolina mountains. I consider it
excellent. The methods of cooking there were rather primitive. It was
sliced and fried with butter and salt. It should be well cooked, for
when not well done the partially raw taste is not pleasant. The plant
was very abundant in the woods, and for three weeks an abundance was
served twice a day for a table of twelve persons. The only disagreeable
feature about it is the sticky character of the milk, which adheres in
quantity to the hands and becomes black. This makes the preparation of
the plant for the broiler a rather unpleasant task.

Figure 118 is from plants (No. 3910, C. U. herbarium) collected in the
woods at Blowing Rock, during September, 1899. Just before the exposure
was made to get the photograph several of the plants were wounded with a
pin to cause the drops of milk to exude, as is well shown in the
illustration.

The dark color of the lamellae in _L. corrugis_ is due to the number of
brown cystidia or setae, in the hymenium, which project above the surface
of the gills, and they are especially abundant on the edge of the gills.
These setae are long fusoid, 80--120 x 10--12 mu. The variations in the
color of the gills, in some plants the gills being much darker than in
others, is due to the variations either in the number of these setae or
to the variation in their color. Where the cystidia are fewer in number
or are lighter in color the lamellae are lighter colored. Typical forms
of _Lactarius volemus_ have similar setae, but they are very pale in
color and not so abundant over the surface of the gills. In the darker
forms of _L. volemus_ the setae are more abundant and darker in color,
approaching those found in _L. corrugis_. These facts, supported by the
variation in the color of the pileus in the two species and the
variations in the rugosities of the pileus, seem to indicate that the
two species are very closely related.

[Illustration: FIGURE 119.--Lactarius lignyotus. Cap and stem sooty, cap
wrinkled, gills white, then tinged with ochre (natural size, sometimes
larger). Copyright.]

=Lactarius lignyotus= Fr.--This is known as the sooty lactarius and
occurs in woods along with the smoky lactarius. It is distinguished from
the latter by the dark brown color of the pileus and by the presence
usually of rugose w