46 



Mycologia 



age ; spores ellipsoid, smooth, yellowish, 5-7 ix long ; stipe usually 

 short and thick, lateral, colored like the pileus, often reduced 

 to a mere tubercle and sometimes wanting. 



This species occurs on decaying trunks and stumps of chestnut, 

 oak, and certain other deciduous trees in this country and in 

 Europe. On account of its resemblance to a piece of beefsteak, 

 it has long been recognized and used for food. It should be 

 thoroughly cooked, and, if the acid flavor is objectionable, sodium 

 carbonate should be added during the process of cooking. I 

 have found this fungus much more common on chestnut than 

 on oak, and I have noticed that foreigners regularly visit old 

 chestnut stumps and trunks in the vicinity of New York during 

 late summer and autumn to obtain it. Since the chestnut trees 

 have all been killed by the canker, the beefsteak fungus should 

 appear in great quantity. 



Ceriomyces subtomentosus (L.) Murrill 



SUBTOMENTOSE CeRIOMYCES. YeLLOW-CRACKED BoLETUS 

 Plate 19. Figure 6. X | 



Pileus convex to expanded, 4-10 cm. broad; surface dry, 

 tomentose, often rimose-areolate, yellowish-brown, reddish- 

 brown or subolivaceous ; margin entire, often involute when 

 young; context white or yellowish, unchanging, yellow beneath 

 the cuticle, taste mild; tubes adnate or slightly depressed, often 

 becoming nearly free, yellow, unchanging when wounded, 

 greenish-yellow at the maturity of the spores, mouths large, ir- 

 regular, sometimes compound ; usually angular ; spores greenish 

 when fresh, fading to yellowish-brown, subfusiform, smooth, 10- 

 12 X 4-5 ft; stipe ventricose or nearly equal, tapering below, fur- 

 furaceous to glabrous, even, or wholly or partially reticulate, 

 pale-yellow or slightly brownish, often flavous above, reddish- 

 brown when bruised, solid, white or yellowish within, 4-6 cm. 

 long, 0.5-1.5 cm. thick. 



This species, like the golden-flesh boletus, is generally distri- 

 buted in deciduous woods throughout Europe and temperate North 

 America and is often eaten. The cap is usually yellowish-brown 

 or olive-tinted and the stem and large tubes are yellow, the latter 

 not becoming blue when wounded, as is the case in C. communis. 



