14 American Boletes 



slightly viscid when wet, purplish-brown, smoky-red or choco- 

 late-brown, at times lilac-tinged, darker when bruised; margin 

 entire, concolorous ; context firm, gray or slightly reddish, some- 

 times nearly pure-white, changing to pale-flesh-colored, taste 

 mild; tubes adnate, at length depressed, nearly plane, colored 

 nearly like the pileus, becoming deep-chocolate-brown with 

 age, mouths minute, subcircular, stuffed when young; spores 

 oblong, smooth, brownish-ferruginous, 11-15X4-6/*; stipe 

 cylindric, subequal, solid, minutely squamulose or coarsely 

 granular, slightly paler than the pileus, greenish-purple within, 

 5-14 cm. long, 1-3 cm. thick. 



Frequent in thin woods and on roadside banks from Nova 

 Scotia to North Carolina and west to Kentucky. 



17. Ceriomyces crassus Batt. 



Pileus thick, broadly convex, gregarious or cespitose, 6-20 

 cm. broad, 3-4 cm. thick; surface smooth, glabrous or finely 

 tomentose, subopaque, dry, slightly viscid when moistened, 

 sometimes pitted or reticulate-rimose, varying in color from 

 ochraceous-brown to reddish-brown, sometimes paler; margin 

 acute, entire; context compact, 2-3 cm. thick, unchanging, 

 white or yellowish, sometimes reddish beneath the cuticle, taste 

 sweet and nutty; tubes adnate, at length depressed, plane in 

 mass, white and stuffed when young, yellow or greenish-yellow 

 when mature, changing to greenish-ochraceous when wounded, 

 about 2 cm. long, mouths of medium size, angular, edges thin; 

 spores fusiform, smooth, greenish-yellow to ochraceous-brown, 

 12-15 X 5-6 m; stipe subequal or enlarged below, stout, con- 

 colorous or considerably paler, becoming bluish or discolored 

 when wounded, wholly or partially reticulate, solid, tough, 

 fibrous, yellowish within, tinged with red at times near the 

 surface, 5-10 cm. long, 3-4 cm. thick. 



Very common in woods and groves throughout temperate 

 North America. One of the very best edible fungi, and much 

 used for food in other countries. 



18. Ceriomyces affinis (Peck) Murrill 



Pileus convex to plane, gregarious or scattered, 5-9 cm. broad; 

 surface glabrous or nearly so, slightly viscid when moist, but 

 usually dry, with a thin, separable cuticle which easily cracks 

 or rubs off in spots, fulvous, pale-chestnut, ochraceous, or 

 somewhat olivaceous; margin rather obtuse, entire, slightly 

 projecting beyond the tubes; context somewhat spongy, white, 



