The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Part 76

This plant is found in company with B. Russelli, which it resembles very closely. Its smooth, viscid cap and white flesh will distinguish it. Its stem is much more rough in wet weather than in dry. The peculiar color of the stem will help to identify the species. I found it frequently on Ralston's Run, near Chillicothe. It is found in many of the states of the Union. July and August.

_Boletus Russelli. Frost._

RUSSELL'S BOLETUS. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 306.--Boletus Russelli. One-half natural size.]

The cap is thick, hemispherical or convex, dry, covered with downy scales or bundles of red hairs, yellowish beneath the tomentum, often cracked in areas. The flesh is yellow and unchangeable.

The tubes are subadnate, often depressed around the stem, rather large, dingy-yellow, or yellowish-green.

The stem is very long, equal or tapering upward, roughened by the lacerated margins of the reticular depressions, red or brownish red. The spores are olive-brown, 18-228-10.

The pileus is one and a half to four inches broad, the stem is three to seven inches long, and three to six lines thick. This is distinguished from the other species by the dry squamulose pileus and the color of the stem. The latter is sometimes curved at the base. _Peck._

I have found this species frequently in the woods and open places about Chillicothe. It is one of the easiest of the Boleti to determine. The plants here have a bright brownish-red pileus, with a shade lighter color on the stem; the latter quite rough and tapering toward the cap.

They are usually solitary. The plants in Figure 306 were collected in Michigan and photographed by Dr. Fischer.

_Boletus vermiculosus. Pk._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 307.--Boletus vermiculosus. One-half natural size.]

Vermiculosus means full of small worms. The pileus is broadly convex, thick, firm, dry; smooth, or very minutely tomentose; brown, yellowish-brown or grayish-brown, sometimes tinged with red. The flesh is white or whitish, quickly changing to blue where wounded. The tubes are plane or slightly convex, nearly free, yellow; their mouths small, round, brownish-orange, becoming darker or blackish with age, changing promptly to blue where wounded.

The stem is nearly equal, firm, even, paler than the pileus. The spores are ochraceous-brown, 10-124-5. _Peck._

The plant represented in Figure 307 grew under the beech trees on Cemetery Hill. I found it frequently in the woods, from July to September.

_Boletus Frostii. Russell._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 308.--Boletus Frostii. Caps blood-red and s.h.i.+ning.

Natural size.]

Frostii is named in honor of Mr. Frost, a noted mycologist.

The pileus is three to four inches broad; convex, polished, s.h.i.+ning, blood-red; the margin is thin, the flesh scarcely changing to blue.

The tubes are nearly free, greenish-yellow, becoming yellowish-brown with age, their mouths blood-red or cinnabar-red.

The stem is two to four inches long, three to six lines thick, equal or tapering upward, distinctly reticulated, firm, blood-red. The spores are 12.5-155. _Peck_, Boleti of U. S.

This is a beautiful plant. It is not plentiful, yet it is found frequently on some of our hillsides. The plants in Figure 308 were found in Hayne's Hollow near Chillicothe, and photographed by Dr. Kellerman.

The plant is found in New England and through the Middle West. I have had beautiful plants sent me from Vermont. It is not edible, so far as I know. Found in August and September.

_Boletus luridus. Schaeff._

THE LURID BOLETUS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 309.--Boletus luridus. One-half natural size.]

Luridus means pale-yellow, sallow. The pileus is convex, tomentose, brown-olivaceous, then somewhat viscous, sooty. The flesh is yellow, changing to blue when wounded. Tubes free, yellow, becoming greenish, their mouths round, vermilion, becoming orange. The stem is stout, vermilion, somewhat orange at the top, reticulate or punctuate. The spores are greenish-gray, 159.

The lurid Boletus, though pleasant to the taste, is reputed very poisonous. Boletus rubeolarius, Pers., having a short, bulbous, scarcely reticulated stem, is regarded as a variety of this species. The red-stemmed Boletus, B. erythropus, Pers., is also indicated by Fries as a variety of luridus. It will be seen on the right in Figure 309. It is smaller than B. luridus, has a brown or reddish-brown pileus and a slender cylindrical stem, not reticulated but dotted with squamules.

_Peck_, Boleti of the U. S. The plant is quite abundant in our woods.

Found in July and August.

_Boletus castaneus. Bull._

THE CHESTNUT BOLETUS. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 310.--Boletus castaneus. One-half natural size.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 311.--Boletus castaneus.]

Castaneus, pertaining to a chestnut. The pileus is dry, convex, then expanded, minutely velvety; cinnamon or reddish-brown, from one to three inches in diameter; the flesh white, not changing when bruised, cap frequently turned upward.

The tube-surface is white, becoming yellow, tubes small and short, free from the stem.

The stem is equal or tapering upward, colored and clothed like the cap, short and not always straight; when young it is spongy in the center but becomes hollow with age. The spores are pale-yellow, oval or broadly elliptical, which is a feature to distinguish the species.

I found a number of specimens in James Dunlap's woods, near Chillicothe, Ohio. A great majority seemed to be attacked by the parasitic fungi, Sepedonium chrysospermum.

The caps are very fine eating. Care should be taken to use only young specimens. Found in open woods from June to September.

_Boletus sata.n.u.s. Lenz._

SATANIC BOLETUS.

Pileus convex, smooth, somewhat gluey, brownish-yellow or whitish; flesh whitish, becoming reddish or violaceous where wounded. Tubes free, yellow, their mouths bright red, becoming orange-colored with age. The stem thick, ovate-ventricose, marked above with red reticulations.

_Peck_, Boleti of U. S.

Hamilton Gibson and Captain McIlvaine seem to give his Satanic majesty a good reputation, but I would say "Be cautious." His looks always deterred me. Found in woods from June to September.

_Strobilomyces. Berk._

Strobilomyces is from two Greek words meaning a pine-cone and a fungus.

The hymenoph.o.r.e is even, tubes not easily separable from it, large and equal. It is of a brownish-gray color, its s.h.a.ggy surface more or less studded with deep-brown or black woolly points, each at the center of a scale-like segment. The tubes beneath are covered at first with a veil which breaks and is often found on the rim of the cap. It is a plant that will quickly attract attention.

_Strobilomyces strobilaceus. Berk._

THE CONE-LIKE BOLETUS. EDIBLE.