76 An HISTORY of FUNGUSSES. 

 LXXXIX. BOLETUS acaulis lobatis coriaceis, lobis linguiformibus '► 



elegans. 



ELEGANT BOLETUS. 



TAB. LXXVI. 



^TpHIS elegant plant grew in an upright direction ; it confined 

 •*■ of ten or twelve principal lobes, which united near the 

 root, and formed a kind of thick irregular item, of a blackifh 

 colour, and an hard tough fubftance ; thefe firft or principal lobes 

 increafe in breadth, from the bafe to the extremity, where each 

 is fubdivided into three or four other lobes, of a roundifh 

 tongue-fhape, blunt at the end, and a little waved on the edges. 



Of the primary divifions or lobes, thofe in the centre are 

 the fhorteft, thofe on the outfide longeft ; fo that the whole 

 plant together forms a rude kind of funnel-fhape. The upper 

 furface appears to the eye to be a little fcaly, but is fmooth and 

 velvety to the touch, and varies from a dufky brown to a kind 

 of cinnamon colour. 



The tubes, at B. are fmall and very numerous, the pores 

 round and white ; while young they appear as if covered with a 

 fine white velvety dufl, but on being touched immediately lofe 

 the white, and change to a dirty brown. The internal fub- 

 ftance, at A. is thin, white, and extremely tough; it eafily 

 divides in fine filaments, from the top of the lobes quite down 

 to the root ; which filaments immediately after their divifion, 

 on being irritated, feemed to exhibit motions juft like thofe of 

 a mufcular fibre. 



This plant grew amongft the fragments of a decayed elm 

 root, in Crofs-Field, at Halifax, in Auguft, 17S6, and again in 

 the fame place in July, 1788. I find no defcription or figure 

 properly expreifive of this fpecies. 'The figure in Battarra, 

 ¥. 34.. Fig.B. which Hudfon cites for the Boletus coriaceus, 

 fomcwhat refembles my plant. Hudfon 's B. coriaceus is the fame 

 with my B. tenax, but I think that my tenax and elegans are 

 dfiinB fpecies. 



