Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate VII. 



BOLETUS LURIDUS, ^^^.^.Fries. 



Crimson-pored Boletus. 



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

 Spores oblong. Boletus, — from /SwXos, a hall; from the rounded form of many of them. 



Spec. Char. B. luridus, var. 0; "Pileus thick, pulvinate, soft, smooth, glaucous buff or whitish; tubes 

 yellow, their orifices minute, unequal, sanguine-red, rarely orange-red ; stem short, ventricose, stout, reticulated with 

 yellow and red ; Jksh changeable, turning blue ; taste sweet. 



"Boletus luridus, /3. Fries. 



" rubeolarius, ^ sanguineus, Persoon. 



" Satanas, Leny. 



" marmoreus, Roques. 



" SatanspUz, Blutpilz. Pileus eight inches or more across, pulvinate, soft to the touch, naked, dry, in damp 

 weather slightly viscid, smooth, seldom rough ; wrinkled, tessellated in diy weather ; whitish, leather-buff, or 

 greenish, often shading into a red tinge. The flesh is solid, becoming soft, tender aud juicy, from one to two 

 inches thick, white, when broken turning first reddish, then blue. The mass of pores is in youth very shallow, 

 afterwards deep ; iu the early stage they are yellow, then orange-red deepening to dark cardinal-red orifices ; they 

 separate easily from the pileus, and are dark blue when broken ; they are not half as deep as the thickness of the 

 flesh. The steai is without a veil, two or three inches high, thick, stout, nearly bulbous, often pressed flat or 

 squared, often swelling out in the middle (ventricose), smallest above ; yellow, blood-red or pm-ple-red, seldom pale 

 or rose-red, finely reticulated above, the reticulations pui-ple-crimsou, often vanishing iu age, the stem gi-owing 

 streaked below. It differs from the common B. luridus in the shape of the pileus, and in the fine network of the 

 stem' ' . — Kromhhoh. 



Hah. In pastures under oaks ; summer and autumn. 



The Boletus family appears to have been less examined and described than any other division of the Pileate 

 tribes ; it seems therefore advisable to bring forward the most interesting subjects that have come under 

 our personal observation, and whenever they can be thorougldy indentified \dth foreign illustrations, particu- 

 larly the superb and laborious ones of Ivrombholz, a step wiU be gained in ascertaining the number of Enghsh 

 species. The Boletus luridus of Schoeifer, of wliich Fries considers our present Satanspdz a variety, is 

 common in England, but few persons probably have seen the magnificent Fungus, which bears this German 

 name of terror. It is certainly nearly allied also to B. erythropus of Fries, but Krombholz points out dis- 

 tinctive characters in aU three wliich will scarcely allow of their being the same plant ; a portrait of the un- 

 doubted B. luridus of SchccfTer (and the EngUsh Flora) as well as one of B. erythropus, shall shortly be 

 presented, when by comparing the tlu-ee it may be possible to determine whether they are distinct individuals 

 or the same, in masquerade habiUments. All will surely agree that had the description of Krombholz, 

 which we have adopted, beer, drawn up to suit the portrait, it could not more correctly have appHed to it ; 



