Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XXXIV. 



BOLETUS BOVINUS,z 



inn. 



Cow Boletus. 



Gen. Char. Hymenium distinct from tlie substance of tlie pileus, consisting of distinct separable tubes. Name 

 from fiwXos, a iall, from tlie rounded form of many of them. 



Spec. Cliar. B. bovinus. Gregarious, sometimes two or tbree fasciculate. Pileus from two to four inches 

 broad ; at first hemispherical, then expanded, rather pulvinate, but the margins incurved ; reddish-buff or the 

 colour of a hah" burned brick (gilvus), viscid flesh from one to one and a half inch thick, tender, soft, varying from 

 nearly white to pale yellow, darker beneath the epidermis, not turning blue, but acquiring a slight vinous tinge. 

 Tubes sub-decurrent, compound, large, angular, shallow, not easQy separating from the flesh of the pileus, grey- 

 yeUow then ferruginous ; spores pale. Stem from two to fom- inches high, ft'om half to three quarters of an inch 

 thick in the middle, foi: the most part equal, but in young specimens sometimes bulbous at the base, thickening 

 above and diffusing itself into the pileus, smooth, elastic, firm, ribbed, of a paler shade than the cap. Taste and 

 smell, sweetish, agi-eeable. Esculent. 

 Boletus bo\dnus, Linnmus, Fries, Berkeley, Greville. 

 gi'egarius, Flora Baiiica, Tf'ilhering. 



Hah. In heathy pine woods ; summer and autumn. Rare in the South of England. 



Krombliolz, who has given a very minute description of tlus Boletus, says that it is sought for as a 

 dish, and is good dried ; we have not found it plentiful enough in Kent to spare any for the table, but no 

 other cause would make us hesitate to eat what is so decidedly recommended by good authority. The 

 internal evidence is completely in its favour, both taste and consistency being very agreeable, and the flesh 

 does not assume that blue tinge on being broken or cut, which, whether with reason or not, prepossesses 

 against the individual subject to the change. External recommendations we cannot say it possesses, nor do we 

 consider it an " elegant species " except on paper ; the sticky nature of the epidermis causing grains of earth, 

 dead fii'-needles, and pieces of grass, ruptured by its pushing upwards, to adhere to it, in a Tom o' Bedlam 

 coronal, by no means adding a grace to its attractive pileus. In some of the Boletus family the coat of 

 gluten covering the pileus is of a darker shade than the substance it lies upon, but in Boletus bovinus it is 

 colourless, and this is one mark of distinction, besides others, between it and B. granulatus as well as B. lutens. 

 They all belong to Fries' class Yiscipelles, and although their slimy coats may occasion prejudice, are 

 excellent food, if gathered before the ravages of insects commence ; to these they are very subject, and not 

 unfrequently a fine perfect-looking specimen crushes to pieces at the touch, the very ghost of a Fungus, 

 entirely without substance, though retaining the outward shew of one. The derivation of the name is not 



