The numerous varieties with their peculiarities here given by Professor Peck will enable the finder of a Boletus with a distinctly scabrous stem—roughened with scales, not reticulate—to select its name. For the mycophagist it is enough to know that he has Boletus scaber. In all of its varieties it is edible. The stems, often the tubes, unless young, should be discarded, as they do not cook in the same time as the caps. The comparative excellence of the species rests with the devourer. It deserves a high place.
B. scaber, var. areolatus, Plate [CXVIII], fig. 4, has slight flavor, but is of pleasing consistency.
B. durius´culus Schulz—somewhat hard. Pileus 2–5 in. across, hemispherical, minutely velvety, viscid when moist, varying in color from pale-brown, through dingy-chestnut, to umber-brown, often becoming cracked in areas when dry, interstices paler. Flesh thick, white or tinged yellow, when cut becoming reddish copper-color. Tubes ½-¾ in. long, shortened round the stem and free, openings about ⅔ mm. across, often compound, irregularly angular, bright-yellow. Stem 4–7 in. long, fusiform, thickest part 1½-2 in. across, situated below the middle, yellowish, rough with blackish points, which are sometimes arranged in a subreticulate manner, apex sometimes more or less grooved, solid, flesh of upper part becoming coppery like the pileus. Spores elongato-cylindrical, pale-umber, 14–16×5–6µ.
In woods. Esculent and very delicious. Allied to Boletus scaber, but distinguished by the bright-yellow tubes and the very firm flesh, which turns coppery-red when exposed to the air; this color eventually changes to a dingy grayish-violet. Also allied to Boletus porphyrosporus. Massee.
Snow Hill, N.J. Gravelly soil, mixed woods, 1892. McIlvaine.
The stem and tubes should be removed. The caps are very fine.
B. albel´lus Pk.—whitish. Pileus convex or gibbous, soft, glabrous, whitish. Flesh white, unchangeable. Tubes convex, free, or nearly so, small, subrotund, whitish, unchangeable. Stem glabrous or minutely branny, substriate, bulbous or thickened at the base, whitish. Spores brownish-ochraceous, 14–16×5–6µ.
Pileus 1–2 in. broad. Stem 1–2 in. long, 3–6 lines thick.
Woods. New York, Peck.
This is closely related to B. scaber, of which it may possibly prove to be a dwarf form; but it is easily distinguished by its smooth or only slightly scurfy and subbulbous stem. It presents no appearance of the colored dot-like squamules which are a constant and characteristic feature of that species. Peck, Boleti of the U.S.