Type Studies On Basidiomycetes. II

Abstract

Murrill says that L. torminosus exceedingly abundant in Gainesville, and also describes the above-cited var. glabra of that species. We have carefully studied the type of this variety as well as the specimens determined as L. torminosa in the Gainesville Herbarium, and our conclusion is that none of them belongs to L. torminosus. This incorrect determination of the plant in question is not directly Murrill's fault. Murrill, in order to determine his Lactarii of Florida, relied on Coker's monograph of the species of South Carolina where the same species is likewise described under the name of L. torminosus. Actually, the species occurring so abundantly in the south, and much less commonly in the north of the United States, and corresponding to the characters indicated by Coker, had no valid name up to 1941. A. H. Smith seems to be the only one who clearly saw this situation, and, as a consequence, described this fungus as a new species, L. psammicola, the type of which I have seen at Ann Arbor, in 1941. Though it has been well described by its author (l.c.), our own description is based on innumerable collections and adds some chemical and anatomical data not given before: