Among the toadstools which tradition would surely brand as poisonous on account of "bright color" is the common species whose name heads this paragraph, and which is illustrated in Plate 22, fig. 2. In its various shapes it suggests the preceding varieties. Its cap, however, is brownish red, often bright brick red. Flesh almost lemon-yellow, stained red just beneath the cuticle, and not noticeably changeable on fracture. Tube surface yellowish green, turning blue or bluish green when bruised. Spores light brown. Tubes rather large, angular, and unequal in shape of aperture. Stem yellow, often brightly colored with the red of the cap. Chance cracks in its surface become red, whence the common name of the "Red-cracked Boletus." A species frequent in woods throughout the summer and autumn, and edible.
In its brightly colored cap it might possibly be superficially confounded with the suspicious Boletus alveolatus of [Plate 24]. But the latter species is easily distinguished by its rose-colored spores and red pore surface.
CONE-LIKE BOLETUS
Strobilomyces strobilaceus
Botanical characters
Another allied species, not especially famous for its esculent qualities, but which is, nevertheless, not to be despised, is here introduced on account of its especially pronounced character (Plate 23)—the cone-like Boletus, or, more properly, Strobilomyces. It is of a brownish gray color, its shaggy surface more or less studded with deep brown or black woolly points, each at the centre of a scale-like segment. The tubes beneath are covered by the veil in the younger specimens, but this at length breaks, leaving ragged fragments hanging from the rim of the pileus. The pore surface thus exposed is at first a grayish white, ultimately becoming brown. The substance of the fungus turns red when broken or cut.
This very striking mushroom is found in woods, especially under evergreens. It frequently attains a diameter of four inches. Its spores are a deep brown, and a specimen selected at the stage when the under surface is flat will yield a most beautiful spore print if laid upon white paper and protected from the atmosphere, as described in a later chapter.
PLATE XXIII
THE CONE-LIKE BOLETUS