Order Hymenojiycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXXXI. 



BOLETUS EDULIS, Buiuard. 



Esculent Boletus. 



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

 from /3(iXof, a hall, from the rounded form of many of them. 



Spec. Clmr. B. edulis. Pileus hemispherical, irregular, then pulvinate, at length expanded, nearly plane ; 

 from sis inches to a foot across ; smooth Uke fine kid leather, in wet weather slightly viscid ; often rugose and much 

 cracked; fuscous, umber or nearly black, paler towards the margin. Flesh very thick, white, turning a little reddish 

 near the epidermis. Tubes nearly free ; at first white, then lemon-colour, then duU yellow, turning brownish olive 

 where bruised ; simple, their orifices at first round, then angular, while white extremely shallow, afterwards nearly 

 as deep as the flesh of the pileus. Spores pale gi-eenish ochi-e. Stem solid, four inches or more high, from one 

 inch, to two inches thick, irregularly bulbous, and sometimes monstrously incrassated at the base, covered with 

 minute elongated shallow reticulations, at first white, but becoming fawn-colour. Scent agreeable, not strong. 

 Flavour extremely sweet. Esculent. Most exceEent. 

 Boletus edulis, BulUard, Fries, Berkeley, Persoon. 



Hab. In woods and plantations, particularly under oaks. Summer and autumn. 



Boletus edulis often grows in sucli irregular, either unduly developed or unduly aborted, forms, that 

 no species can be more variable. Happily for the gourmand, however unlike it may be to itself, it is still 

 less like anj'thing else, so mistake is not probable, if once the fungus has been studied. To depict all the 

 appearances it puts on would require a dozen plates, we have therefore selected two individuals as true to 

 their proper specific character as could be found. 



Weather and site of course affect the growth of aU plants, Phenogamous as well as Cryptogamic. 

 Under flourishing young oaks, the foliage of which kept off rain, while their roots impoverished the ground, 

 and there was no depth of superficial decayed vegetable matter to feed B. edulis, we constantly found a very 

 hard compact hemispherical variety, the centre of its pileus being black with a cinereous bloom, becoming 

 gradually umber and rich fuscous yellow towards the margin, the reticulations on the stem being orange- 

 brown also ; tills stem was short and regularly bulbous. The cap never expanded properly owing to defect 

 of nutriment, and it became 'the prey of insects before the spores had coloured the tubes. 



In complete contrast to this form, after the thunder-storms in the summer of 1847, there grew, in 

 rich peaty soil where fallen leaves had accumulated and decayed for a thousand years under the ancient 

 oaks, enormous specimens of B. edulis ; on one particular ridge of our favourite slope, looking up from the 

 bottom through the obscure shade, a whole row loomed dimly in rude proportion like so many Cromlechs, 

 the memorials of an extinct race of gigantic Fairy Druids. However exaggerated this statement may seem, 

 a specimen fairly selected measured thirty-seven inches in circumference, and eight inches and a half round 

 the most slender part of the stem ; a more fitting " stool " for a cliild than for a toad. AU these monsters 

 were much more paUid in hue than the smaller ones, perhaps fi'om the absence of sunshine. They attained 



