a 
x 
The cap is one to five inches broad and the stem two to five 
inches long and one-third to two-thirds of an inch thick. 
The plant grows everywhere in woods, swamps and open un- 
cultivated places, and on all kinds of soil. It may be found from 
June to November. 
It is not often that a fungus as plentiful as this is as good. My 
own experiments in eating it were most satisfactory, and it seems 
to me to be one of the very best of our edible boleti. But some 
writers do not esteem it so highly, merely pronouncing it edible, 
or saying that it is less agreeable than the Edible boletus. Gillet 
says that it can be eaten without the least fear, but that young 
plants should be selected, as old ones are generally more difficult 
of digestion. 
The Orange-cap boletus, Boletus versipellis, takes its name 
from the color of the cap, which is yellowish-red or orange. It 
agrees so closely with forms of the Rough-stem boletus, which 
have reddish or orange-colored caps, that it is scarcely possible to 
separate them except by the appendicular fragments of the mem- 
branous veil, which adhere persistently to the margin of the cap 
in this species. These strips of membrane are generally inflexed, 
and cover the mouths of the marginal pores. They are not, 
therefore, noticed unless they are sought by looking at the lower 
surface of the cap. In consequence of the close resemblance be- 
tween the two species, any more extended description of this one 
is unnecessary. It has the same size, the same color of the pores 
and the same color ornamentation and character of the stem that 
belong to the Rough-stem boletus. It is less common with us, 
and to my taste its flavor is less agreeable. 
The Edible boletus, Boletus edulis, is a large but not very com- 
mon species. When young, the cap is firm and the pores are 
whitish and indistinct, their mouths appearing as if stuffed with 
a whitish substance; but in older plants the flesh becomes more 
soft and the pore mouths distinct. The cap varies some in color 
but is generally reddish-brown or tawny brown in the centre with 
paler or yellowish hues toward the margin. The flesh is white, 
or barely tinged with yellow and of an agreeable nutty flavor. 
The pore mass, which is whitish in young plants, soon changes to 
yellowish or greenish-yellow. It is depressed around the stem. 
The stem is stout,solid, often alittle thickenedtoward thebase, 
generally even, except toward the top, where it is roughened with 
minute elevated lines which are connected in a reticulated man- 
ner, forming a kind of network style of ornamentation. Its color 
is usually whitish, buff or yellowish-brown. 
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