POLYPOREI 189 



EDIBLE TUBE MUSHROOM 

 Boletus edulis 



The most prominent member of the Boleti is the 

 typical species whose portrait I have given on Plate 

 20, " in vain calling himself ' edulis', where there were 

 none to believe him." But in spite of this remark of 

 Dr. Badham, which had reference es- 

 A famous pecially to his native country, England, 

 delicacy this fungus had long been a favorite 

 article of food among a large class of 

 the more lowly Europeans, to say nothing of the lux- 

 urious epicures of the continent. 



Boletus edulis is to be found singly or in groups, 

 usually in the woods. Its average diameter is per- 

 haps four or five inches, though specimens are occa- 

 sionally found of double these dimensions. A letter 

 to the writer from a correspondent in the Rocky 

 Mountains describes specimens measuring fifteen 

 inches in diameter having been found there. 



The cushion -like cap is more or less convex, ac- 

 cording to age, of a soft brownish or drab color 

 somewhat resembling kid, and with 

 Specific velvety softness to the touch. The 

 characters under surface or hymenium is thickly 

 beset, honey-combed with minute ver- 

 tical pores, which will leave a pretty account of them- 

 selves upon a piece of white paper laid beneath 

 them and protected from the least draught, a proc- 

 ess by which we may always obtain a deposit of 

 the ochre-tinted spores, as is further described in 

 a later chapter. 



