A FEW COMMON MUSHROOMS. 
51 
branching veins, there should be no possibility of a mistake in 
dealing with this fungus. As the chanterelle is rather tough 
when raw, besides having 
a pungent taste, it requires 
considerable cooking. 
They should be slowly par¬ 
boiled in a covered dish 
containing a little butter, 
over a very slow fire, until 
tender. 
In the last paper was 
illustrated and described 
one of the family Polypo- 
raceae, the Polyporus 
sulphureus, as typical of 
the tree-inhabiting poly- fig. 9. 
pori. It is here desired to introduce the reader to another 
very interesting and numerous division of the family, the boleti 
(fig. 10). They are polypori which ordinarily grow upon the 
ground and which are provided with distinct and nearly central 
stems. They are of the regular umbrella shape and roughly 
resemble in outward appearance the gilled mushrooms, but the 
under surface of the caps of the boleti will be found to be made 
up of minute pores which are the mouths of countless down¬ 
wardly pointing tubes from which the spores are distributed. 
The boleti differ from the rest of the polypori in the softness of 
the flesh of the cap and the readiness with which the tubular 
spore-bearing portion may be separated from the solid substance 
of the cap. They are a very valuable group gastronomically, but 
unfortunately, this fact is known in the insect world, rendering 
it difficult to obtain uninfested specimens for the table. Boleti 
in the very young state are button-shape ; later the cap becomes 
less convex and finally nearly flat. The spore-bearing surface 
is generally somewhat convex downward, giving the plant a 
cushion-like form. The stems are usually stout and tough in 
texture. They are chiefly found in the woods. Until quite re¬ 
cently a number of species of the boleti have been regarded as 
deleterious, the stigma especially having attached to those with 
