Older Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XXXV. 



BOLETUS "LV^ljyV^, sch^ffer. 



Poisonous Boletus. 



Spec. Char. Boletus luridus. Pileus from two to six inches broad, convex, expanded, pulvinatc, minutely 

 tomentose, olive, brick-red, pinkish, cream-coloured, or fen-uginous-brown. Flesh more or less yellow, changing to 

 blue and green. Tubes nearly free, quite simple, round, yellow or greenish, their oriiices of a bright orange-red. 

 Spores olivaceous-ochi'e. Stem very variable in length, bulbous, tomentose, sometimes quite smooth, but generally 

 more or less marked and reticulated with crimson-red. Very deleterious, but not disagreeable either in taste or smell. 

 Boletus luridus, Sclurffer, Fries, Berl-eley. 



Hah. Pastures, &c. ; summer and autumn. Very common. 



Every one knows what extraordinary differences exist between the forms of the human skull ; yet all, 

 from the god-hke Greek, Homer, to the monkey-like Papuan, — whether they have the broad, flat, almost eye- 

 less, noseless, unmeaning face of the Mongohan tribes, or the eagle-beaked proboscis, and physiognomy all 

 features, of the ancient Romans, — possess those characteristics which belong to one common humanity. And 

 thus may we consider the natural family Boletus as bearing towards each other a similar relation to that 

 subsisting between all tlie sons of men. Wliether we may carry on the comparison in the case of any indi- 

 vidual Boletus is doubtful. B. Satanas, B. eri/fJtropus, B. elephantinu-s, toere considered as mere varieties 

 of the present species B. luridus, differing from each other only as the children of many an English family 

 do, where red-haired, and blue-eyed, and nut-brown brothers and sisters form the circle ; but Fries has 

 divided B. Satanas from B. luridus, on grounds which he deems sufficient, and the affinity of Withering's 

 B. elepkantiniis is certainly with the rich crimson Satanas, not with luridus. 



Our present subject, then, is the B. luridus of Schreffcr. If compared with Plate VII. of our First 

 Series, and Plate II. of the Second, it wiU be found that, while they resemble each other strongly in general 

 configuration, they differ from this genuine B. luridus in that respect.^ The juvenile pileus of those is 

 ball-shaped, cooping in towards the stem : they are much less compact in after growth, becoming irregularly 



' Mere coloiu- does not constitute a botanical difference of species ; therefore the absence of crimson in the 

 B. eleplMiitlnus may be only a case of " white lilac," which we unhesitatingly apply to Syringa vulgaris. We may 

 here be allowed to prove, by a fact within our own knowledge, how useful a little botany would sometimes be. A 

 lady gardener, who spared neither time nor expense, but was a mere florist, was looking over a nurseiyman's list, 

 and came to Sgriuiga purpureus. Her only idea of a Syrbiga was the common Philaddphiis, so called, and the idea of 

 a pm'ple one was quite novel and defightful ; half-a-dozen were sent for, and the disappointment may be imagined : 

 " What ! — only comniou lilacs !" 



