268 
THE BOLETI OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. 
and they cannot in any case be placed far from B. luridus. 
The fourth species, B. purpureus, has not occurred here ; I 
saw some magnificent specimens at Hereford last year. 
This concludes the Boleti which are said to have ochraceous 
spores. In the next section “ Dermini,” with subferruginous 
spores, there are three species, one of which is not known 
from this district. The second, B. versipellis, is probably that 
found at “ Barr ” by Withering, and in Oversley and Bagley 
Woods by Purton. They called it B. aurantiacus, and Purton’s, 
at least, seem to be identical with what Sowerby figured in his 
pi. 110 which is now referred to B. versipellis. The third 
species is the common B. scaber , which is edible and indeed 
more pleasant to the taste than the other Boleti I have tried. 
One can easily distinguish it by its stem, which is strongly 
attenuated upwards and rough with numerous blackish fibres, 
the upper ends of which are free. It may here be remarked 
that the stems of Boleti seem to me oftentimes to offer more 
definite field characters than the other parts of the fungus. 
In the next section “ Hyporrhodii,” the spores are of a 
rosy colour. These species are very rare ; Fries records only 
two for the whole of Europe, both of which have been found 
in England. The first, B. alutarius, is not known here ; I 
once thought I had found it, but was assured by a friend on 
whose judgment I can rely that this was a mistake. Last 
August, however, I found the other species, B. felleus, in 
Sutton Park, and exhibited a specimen at the opening 
Conversazione of the British Association Meeting. Dr. M. 
C. Cooke on seeing it informed me that he had not met with 
this species for the ten previous years, but that this year it 
had unexpectedly appeared in several distant places. He 
himself found specimens afterwards in another part of Sutton 
Park, on one of the excursions made thither during the 
Meeting of the Association. 
In the last section, “ Leucospori,” there are only two 
species, both rare, neither of which has been found in this 
district. But the single species placed in the next genus, 
Strobilomyces, which is considered by Fries to be a true 
Boletus, was found in 1861, at the “Valley,” Bromsgrove, by 
Mr. Wm. Mathews, M.A. This rare and wonderful fungus 
seems to have its favourite home farther to the west, in the 
district sacred to the Woolhope Club. 
The foregoing certainly does not exhaust our list. I have 
found at least two other forms not identical with those 
previously mentioned, but which unfortunately I was not able 
to refer to any species described in the books at my command. 
The number of those included in this notice is twenty-six, of 
which one or two may be considered doubtful. 
