FLOWERLESS PLANTS 



453 



A Boletus 



trees, both dead and alive, and many are directly respon- 

 sible for the death of trees upon which they are found. 



Boleti. If the mushroom is soft, not woody, 

 and has tubes easily separable from the rest of 

 the cap, it belongs to the genus Boletus. Several 

 Boleti are pronounced edible, but, as with the 

 amanitas, taste is not a safeguard against the 

 I poisonous kinds. Satan's Boletus, B. satanus, 

 B. luridiis, B. alveolatiis, and other allied species 

 are set down in most of the books as poisonous. 

 Mcllvaine pronounces them "remarkably fine 

 eating." B. satanus is a large mushroom, three Fig. i8 

 to eight inches in diameter, brownish yellow to 

 dull white in color. The tubes are yellow, except at their mouths, 

 which are bright red. The stem is thick and swollen and is marked 

 with red reticulations near the cap. The flesh is whitish but changes 

 to reddish or violet when wounded. B. luridus is similar, but smaller, 

 two to four inches broad, brownish olive above, and the flesh turns 

 blue when broken. 



Fistulma. If the tubes hang separate, i.e., are not cemented 

 together in a mass, the mushroom is a Fistulina. The common spe- 

 cies is F. hepatica, the beef tongue, or beefsteak fungus, which 

 grows sometimes in huge masses on oak and chestnut stumps. Its 

 color is red, variegated above and streaked in lines of growth. 

 Below, the spore surface is pale, tinged with 

 yellow or pink. The beefsteak mushroom is 

 certainly not poisonous, and some consider it 

 edible in spite of its marked acidity. 



Polypori. If the tubes cling together, are 

 inseparable from the cap, and the plant becomes 

 woody or corky with age, it is probably a 

 Fig. 187. l^'PouvTo^v?., polyporus. These are the "bracket fungi," 

 " punks," and " conchs " often found growing 

 upon trees. A few Polypori are " edible," after 

 a fashion, when young and tender, but the chief reason for studying 

 them relates to their injury of trees. Have the class examine the 



OR Bracket Mush- 

 room 



