The cap is one to five inches broad and the stem two to five 

 inches long and one-third to two-thirds of an inch thick. 



The plant grows everywhere in woods, swamps and open nn- 

 cultivated places, and on all kinds of soil. It may be found from 

 June to jSTovember. 



It is not often that a fungus as plentiful as this is as good. My 

 own experiments in eating it were most satisfactory, and it seems 

 to me to be one of the very best of our edible boleti. But some 

 writers do not esteem it so highly, merely pronouncing it edible, 

 oi saying that it is less agreeable than the Edible boletus. Gillet 

 says that it can be eaten without the least fear, but that young 

 plants should be selected, as old ones are generally more difficult 

 of digestion. 



The Orange-cap boletus. Boletus versipellis, takes its name 

 from the color of the cap, which is yellowish-red or orange. It 

 agrees so closely with forms of the Rough-stem boletus, which 

 have reddish or orange-colored caps, that it is scarcely possible to 

 separate them except by the appendicular fragments of the mem- 

 branous veil, which adhere persistently to the margin of the cap 

 in this species. These strips of membrane are generally inflexed, 

 and cover the mouths of the marginal pores. They are not, 

 therefore, noticed unless they are sought by looking at the lower 

 surface of the cap. In consequence of the close resemblance be- 

 tween the two species, any more extended description of thia one 

 is unnecessary. It has the same size, the same color of the pores 

 and the same color ornamentation and character of the stem that 

 belong to the Rough-stem boletus. It is less common with us, 

 and to my taste its flavor is less agreeable. 



The Edible boletus. Boletus edulis, is a large but not very com- 

 mon species. W^hen young, the cap is firm and the jDores are 

 whitish and indistinct, their mouths appearing as if stuffed with 

 a whitish substance; but in older plants the flesh becomes more 

 soft and the pore mouths distinct. The cap varies some in color 

 but is generallv reddish-brown or tannv-brown in the centre with 

 paler or yellowish hues toward the margin. The flesh is white, 

 or barely tinged with yellow and of an agreeable nutty flavor. 

 The pore mass, which is whitish in young plants, soon changes to 

 yellowish or greenish-yellow. It is depressed around the stem. 



The stem is stout, solid, often alittle thickened toward the base, 

 generally even, except toward the top, where it is roughened mth 

 minute elevated lines which are connected in a reticulated man- 

 ner, forming a kind of network style of ornamentation. Its color , 

 is usuallv whitish, buff or vellowish-brown. 



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