NEW YORK SPECIES OF VISCID BOLETI., 
BOLETUS Diil. 
Hymenium composed of separable tubes crowded into a porous 
stratum, without a trama, distinct and easily separable from the 
hymenophore. Mouths of the tubes either porous, round or angular ; 
spores normally fusiform, rarely oval or subrotund. Terrestrial, fleshy, 
putrescent, centrally stipitate fung?. Many of them valuable for their 
edible qualities, a few poisonous. Hym. Kurop., p. 495. 
This genus is related to Paxillus on one hand and to Polyporus on 
the other. It is more accurately limited than many others, but its 
species are numerous and less clearly defined. Some are very vari- 
able, others are too closely allied to be readily distinguished. Fries 
remarks that ‘‘no genus has given me more trouble than that of the 
Boleti.” The difficulty is apparently due to the imperfect descrip- 
tions given by some authors and to the variability of some species 
whose limits have not been well ascertained. 
Most of the Boleti grow in the warmest part of the season, and 
especially in very warm showery weather. They are scarce in dry 
weather. Some species attain a very large size, others exhibit a 
singular change of color in their tubes or flesh when cut or bruised. 
They are described as terrestrial, yet a few species sometimes occur 
also on much decayed wood. 
The spoies vary in color in different species, but this variation 
occurs in closely related species, so that it is not deemed available for 
classifying in series as in the genus Agaricus. It is, however, valu- 
able as a specific character and should always be noted. Fries has 
taken the primary color of the tubes as the distinguishing character 
of the series, but the same objection holds in this case as in the 
other. 
New York is rich in species of this genus. Two sections, LAcERI- 
pepes Pk. (Torr. Bull. 1883, p. 73) and Hrrripecies Pk. (in. ed.) 
are represented, of which no examples appear to have occurred in 
Europe. We attempt here an exposition of the species of the Vis- 
cipelles, the first section in the Friesian arrangement. 
