Polyporaceae 



Boletus. Indiana, H. I. Miller, Dr. J. R. Weist; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 West Virginia, Mcllvaine. 



Some species of fungi appear to have that prize of Fairyland the 

 Wishing Cap and by its power be able to take on any form they please. 

 Boletus edulis is one of them. Its variableness is puzzling. It is eaten 

 everywhere where found and is a favorite. Carefully sliced, dried and 

 kept where safe from mold it may be prepared for the table at any 

 season. 



TJ. edulis Bull. Var. davipes Pk. (Plate CXIX, fig. i, p. 445.) 

 Pileus fleshy, convex, glabrous, grayish-red, bay-red or chestnut-color. 

 Flesh white, unchangeable. Tubes at first concave or nearly plane, 

 white and stuffed, then convex, slightly depressed around the stem, 

 ochraceous yellow. Stem mostly obclavate (inversely club-shaped) 

 and reticulate to the base. Spores oblong-fusiform, 12-15x4-5^. 



The club-stemmed Boletus is so closely related to the edible Boletus 

 and so closely connected by the intermediate forms that it seems to be 

 only a variety of it, but one worthy of illustration. It differs in the 

 more uniform color of the cap, in having the tubes less depressed 

 around the stem and less tinted with green when mature, and in having 

 the stem more club-shape and commonly reticulated to the base. The 

 lower reticulations are usually coarser but less permanent than the up- 

 per. The cap is more highly colored when young and is apt to become 

 paler with age, but the margin does not become paler than the central 

 part, as it so often does in the edible Boletus. Individuals sometimes 

 occur in which the stem is nearly cylindric and reticulated only on the 

 upper part. These connect so closely with the edible Boletus that we 

 have considered this to be a mere variety of it. In size and in edible 

 qualities it is very similar to that species. Peck, 5 Ist Rep. N. Y. State 

 Bot. 



Same in quality as B. edulis. 



B. vari'ipes Pk. variable stem. Pileus convex or nearly plane, 

 thick, soft, dry, scaly, pointed scaly or minutely tomentose, grayish or 

 pale grayish-brown, sometimes tinged with yellow or ochraceous. Flesh 

 white, unchangeable. Tubes convex or nearly plane, slightly depressed 

 around the stem, at first white, then greenish-yellow, their mouths 

 small, subrotund, ochraceous, stuffed when young. Stem firm, reticu- 



446 



