maturity with extreme rapidity : a few days before nothing of the kind was visible on the spot ; as might be 

 expected they were surcharged with moisture, insipid and soft when cooked, and by no means good. 

 Between these over-soaked rain-swollen sponges, and the solid indurated balls we first described the 

 gradations are infinite, and among them may be selected most delicious subjects for the cook's skill. As some 

 guide to the novice we advise, that no flabby Boletus should be used for the table, and of course on aged 

 individual. Before the tubes change from white to lemon-colour, the flesh is too close, as, after the tubes 

 are fully expanded and the spores ripened, the flesh is too soft, for perfection ; between these stages, with 

 the tubes turned delicate pale yellow, and the reticulations on the stem fawn-colour, a large free-grown 

 solid Boletus, such as we have represented, is super-excellent, among esculent funguses. 



These reticulations upon the stem seem to be the impressions made in its substance by the pores 

 being pressed against it while it is nearly enclosed in the cap, afterwards the growth of the stem enlarges 

 and lengthens the depressions, and exposure to the air turns them brown ; they are always, however, very 

 shallow. This is one point of difference from Boletus felleus, which has a white stem reticulated in a very 

 similar manner with brown, but the meshes are so strongly raised, as to form deep cells between them. 

 This dangerous B. felleus has also wliite pores at first, and a soft brown cap resembling much a young 

 B. edulis j but cannot be mistaken for it, because the spores ultimately change the tubes to pink, and it is 

 very bitter; we found it often in 1848, but it is not common in general. 



Boletus edulis has pure white unchangeable flesh, no part of the plant turns blue in the slightest 

 degree when cut or broken : this fact distinguishes it from a great number of the tribe, particularly from all 

 the varieties of B. luridus. 



Boletus scaier has white, then clay-coloured or dirty-white pores ; no yellow however enters into the 

 colouring of any part of that fungus ; wliile no red is mixed with the tints of B. edulis, (unless we call a 

 vinous tinge beneath the epidermis so). Shades of umber of various degrees of intensity and warmth, from 

 cinereous black to rich burnt Sienna, and dull yellow growing brownish-olive with age, make up the whole 

 range of its hues. There is no reddish-bufl' in its pileus like that of the " gilvus " capped Pachjjims — no 

 rich crimson on its stem like that of B. xaiithoporus ; these two in bulk approach it nearly, but have other 

 differences from it besides the sufficient ones we point out ; they also are esculent, so mistake would not be 

 dangerous. 



Before cooking it, the tubes of any Boletus should be scooped out with a spoon ; they are of an 

 unpleasant rushy texture if eaten, and flavourless. Having reduced the flesh of B. edulis to pieces of a 

 uniform size they may be stewed ; we prefer the " Tourtiere," in which they should be placed with a little 

 fresh butter, pepper, and salt, and gently baked for an hour ; closely covered. 



The problem of raising funguses from seed according to the usual sense of the process, is not solved, 

 and deserves attention. The following is the result of experiments on B. edulis, which Mons. Roques says 

 is artificially produced in the Departement des Landes. Following his directions we placed a quantity of 

 mature Boletuses in a large watering-pot, and filled it up with rain water ; in about three weeks the mass 

 was in strong fermentation, with a thick frothy scimi on the top and smelHng — the most fertile imagination 

 camiot guess how it smelled — but there we must leave it. This fermented substance and Uquor was 

 deposited in various situations under oak trees, and for five years we saw no results — the sixth year was 

 1847, and B. edulis most abundant everywhere. On the spots where we placed the fermented ones 

 formerly, appeared many very small, stunted, but very good and true Boletuses — did they come there 

 because it was au unusually good season for them, or were they our own crop, which it had taken five years 

 to develope ? we cannot tell — only before that. Boletus edulis had never been found within a mile of that 

 spot. 



