THE TUBE-BEARING FUNGI 



365 



cap and a shade paler in color, toward the apex covered with a network which 

 extends to the base, often bulbous. 



The flesh is not poisonous but intensely bitter. No amount of cooking will 

 destroy its bitterness. I gave it a thorough trial, but it was as bitter after cooking 

 as before. It is a common 

 Boletus about Salem, Ohio. 1 

 have seen plants there eight to 

 ten inches in diameter and very 

 heavy. They grow in woods 

 and wood margins, usually 

 about decaying stumps and logs, 

 sometimes in the open fields. 

 July to September. 



Boletus versipellis. Fr. 



The Orange-Cap Boletus. 

 Edible. 



Versipellis is from vcrto, to 

 change, and pellis, a skin. The 

 pileus is two to six inches in 

 diameter, convex, orange-red, 

 dry, minutely woolly or downy, 

 then scaly or smooth, margin 

 containing fragments of the 

 veil, flesh white or grayish. 



The tube-surface is grayish- 

 white, tubes long, free, mouths 

 minute and gray. 



The stem is equal or tapering 

 upward ; solid, white with scaly 

 wrinkles; three to five inches 

 long; and is frequently covered 

 with small reddish or blackish 

 dots or scales. The spores are 

 oblong spindle-shaped. 



This plant can be easily dis- 

 tinguished by the remnant of 

 the veil which adheres to the 

 margin of the cap and is of the 

 same color. It is frequently 



Figure 295. Boletus versipellis. Natural size. 



