obtuse umbo. The cuticle breaks up into brownish scales, close near the centre, but sometimes wanting at the margin. The centre or umbo is darker colored; flesh dry, tough and white. Stem ½ inch thick, and 5 to 10 inches long; it is straight or a little bent, swollen or bulbous at base, sometimes variegated with brownish scales; deeply sunk at apex into the cup of the pileus; hollow or stuffed. Ring distinct from the stem, continuous with cuticle of pileus when young. It becomes free when the cap is expanded, and is then movable and persistent. Gills far remote from the stem, with a broad plano-depressed cartilaginous collar, crowded, ventricose, broader in front, soft, whitish, sometimes becoming dusky at the edge. The gills vary in color. This mushroom is a handsome species and is quite common in woods and pastures. (Edible.)
BOLETUS EDULIS = edible.
The Edible Boletus.
Cap varies sometimes in color (our specimen was brown). It is often a tawny light brown, paler at the margin, 4 to 6 inches broad, flesh white or yellowish, tinged with red under the
cuticle. Tubes convex, nearly free, long, minute, round, white, then yellow and greenish. Stem 2 to 6 inches long, 6 to 18 lines thick, straight or bending, subequal or bulbous, short, more or less reticulated, especially above, whitish, pale reddish or brown. Found in August. Our specimen was small, the stem only 1½ inch long. (Edible.)
BOLETUS SCABER = rough.
The Scabrous-stemmed Boletus.
Cap varies in color, 1 to 5 inches broad, yellowish tan color, smooth, viscid when moist, at length rivulose. Tubes free, convex, white, then dingy color, mouths of tubes very small and round. Stem 3 to 5 inches long, 3 to 8 lines thick, solid, tapering above, roughened with fibrous scales. We found two or three varieties of this Boletus, which seems to grow everywhere in great abundance, in summer and autumn, in woods and in open places. One variety was of a yellowish tan color, Var. alutaceus, in another the flesh changed slightly to pinkish when wounded, Var. mutabilis (Peck). (Edible.)
BOLETUS CASTANEUS = chestnut.
The Chestnut Boletus.
Cap a chestnut color, brown or reddish brown, 1½ to 3 inches broad, convex, nearly plane or depressed, firm, even, dry, minutely velvety (tomentose), flesh white. Tubes free, short, small, white, becoming yellow. Stem 1 to 2½ inches long, 3 to 5 lines thick, equal or tapering upward, even, stuffed or hollow, colored like the cap. This is one of the prettiest of the Boleti. The bright chestnut color of the pileus forms a contrast with the white tubes, and makes it striking in appearance. We found it on several occasions, as it is common in woods. There are differences of opinion in regard to its being edible.
BOLETUS CHRYSENTERON = golden.
The Golden Flesh Boletus.
Cap dark brown or reddish-brown, 1 to 3 inches broad, convex or plane, soft, covered with woolly scales, sometimes marked with lines, flesh yellow, red beneath the cuticle, often slowly changing to blue when wounded, mouths large, angular, unequal. Stem 1 to 3 inches