Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XXV. 



BOLETUS LARICINUS, 5.;vi.% 



Hie Larch Boletus. 



Gen. Char. Hymenium distinct from the substance of the pileus, consisting of cylindric, separable tubes. Spores 

 oblong, of various colours. Name from ^akos a hall, from the rounded form of many of them. 



Spec. Char. Boletus laricinus. Pileus from two to six inches broad, dirty white with Livid stains, at first 

 clothed with yellowish slime, which gi-adually disappears, sub-squamose, often deeply scrobiculate, sometimes having 

 adpressed fascicles of filaments, the remains of the shiny ring ; tubes adnate, sub-decurrent, compound, each having 

 two or three angular orifices, at first nearly white with a yellow tinge, then brownish from the ripened spores. 

 Flesh yellowish-white, not changeable. Stem two inches or more high, from half an inch to thi-ee quarters thick, 

 nearly equal, furnished with a ring, above which it is reticulated (from the pressure of the pores before the expansion 

 of the pileus), frequently much scrobiculated below, dirty white like the pileus, stained with the spores, downy at 

 the base. Spores brownish clay-coloured. 



Hah. Under or near Larches, first fomid by 111-. Berkeley in Northamptonshire ; afterwards at Keston, Kent, 

 by Mr. Peete. 



Some shi'ewd men of the world once determined to put a hold face on the matter, since a handsome one 

 was denied them, and founded an Ugly Club, over which wit probably threw a halo, dazzHng the eye into 

 non-perception of the features ; at any rate, it was politic to make ughness a personal glory instead of 

 disgrace, by thus affixing distinction to it. If among Funguses an Ugly Club were formed. Boletus laricinus 

 would surely be elected to the President's clump of moss, without a dissentient Pileus objecting. Inelegant 

 in form, livid in colour, veiled in shme (what an association with a veil), this Pungus may have rivals in 

 repulsiveness, but none that we ever discovered. When past extreme youth it looks even worse than it is, 

 the furrows in the cap (scrobiculate) give it a collapsed, wrinkled look of age ; the discolom'ed stains have 

 an air of decay, and altogether it reminds our eyes and fingers of the loathsome grey slugs which inhabit 

 damp vaults. 



This Boletus, wliich was quite a botanical novelty when fh'st found by Mr. Berkeley, is of course 

 unnoticed in any foreign authority. It was abmidant in the one habitat at Keston, where it was also 

 discovered, and attained the dimensions of the generahty of large Boletuses, that is, about eight inches across. 

 It grew on the north-side of a fir plantation, in boggy ground, never receiving a ray of sun ; in tliis dismal 

 swamp, its companions were Lycoperdon saccatum, from which in decay oozes the offensive oHve-coloured 

 pulp wliich contains the spores, and another slimy, but handsome Boletus, the Mavidus. It was not then, 

 of old, a mere poetic association of ideas, that placed disagreeable productions in disagreeable situations. 



