_Compact, firm, dry_, inodorous. The pileus becomes obsoletely yellow when old. Although the gills are spotted with yellow, they do not change to straw color like those of L. pergamenus. _Fries._ =Spores= white, nearly smooth, 6.3–7.6µ _Peck_; subglobose, 8–9µ diameter _Massee_; 5×6µ _W.G.S._ Pennsylvania, West Virginia, 1881–1885. New Jersey, Pennsylvania in woods and on grassy places. July to October. _McIlvaine._ Edible. _Curtis._ L. piperatus is a readily distinguished species. It is very common. In 1881, after an extensive forest fire in the West Virginia forests, I saw miles of the blackened district made white by a growth of this fungus. It was the phenomenal growth which first attracted my attention to toadstools. I collected it then in quantity and used it, with good results, as a fertilizer on impoverished ground. It has been eaten for many years in most countries, yet a few writers continue to warn against it. It is the representative fungus of its class—meaty, coarse, fair flavor. It is edible and is good food when one is hungry and can not get better. It is best used as an absorbent of gravies. =L. decepti´vus= Pk.—deceiving. =Pileus= 3–5 in. broad, compact, at first convex and umbilicate, then expanded and centrally depressed or subinfundibuliform, _obsoletely tomentose or glabrous_ except on the margin, white or whitish, often varied with yellowish or sordid stains, the margin at first involute and _clothed with a dense, soft or cottony tomentum_, then spreading or elevated and more or less fibrillose. =Gills= rather broad, distant or subdistant, adnate or decurrent, some of them forked, whitish, becoming cream-colored. =Stem= 1–3 in. long, 8–18 lines thick, equal or narrowed downward, solid, pruinose-pubescent, white. =Spores= white, 9–12.7µ. =Milk= white, taste acrid. Woods and open places, especially under hemlock trees. Common. July to September. Trial of its edible qualities was made without any evil consequences. The acridity was destroyed by cooking. _Peck_, 38th Rep. N.Y. State Bot. Alabama, _U. and E._; New York, _Peck_, 38th Rep.; West Virginia, 1881–1885, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. Woods and open places. July to October. _McIlvaine._ In common with all peppery Lactarii the present species loses the quality in cooking. The edible qualities then depend upon texture, substance, flavor. The species is coarse but meaty and of fair flavor. =L. velle´reus= Fr.—_vellus_, fleece. =Pileus= 2–5 in. broad, compact, at first convex and umbilicate, then expanded and centrally depressed or subinfundibuliform, the _whole surface minutely velvety-tomentose, soft to the touch_, white or whitish, the margin at first involute, then reflexed. =Gills= distant or subdistant, adnate or decurrent, sometimes forked, whitish becoming yellowish or cream-colored. =Stem= .5–2 in. long, 6–16 lines thick, firm, solid, equal or tapering downward, pruinose-pubescent, white. =Milk= white, taste acrid. =Spores= white.