Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi

Boleti of the United States, p. 76. There are six species given as found in the United States—B. cavipes Kalchb., B. pictus Pk., B. paluster Pk., B. decipiens Pk., B. porosus Pk., B. appendiculatus Pk.—of these I have found and eaten four. B. decipiens has, at this writing, not been seen by Professor Peck, but Professor Farlow, of Harvard, has informed him of authentic specimens. There is every probability of its being as edible as the others; a description of it is, therefore, given. In consistency Boletinus is of the best, being rather like that of marshmallows, and the same as Boletus subaureus. The flavor is mild and pleasant. Professor Peck mentions that the smell of B. porosus is sometimes unpleasant. I have been fortunate in not having had this experience. =B. ca´vipes= Kalchb. =Pileus= broadly convex, rather tough, flexible, soft, subumbonate, fibrillose-scaly, tawny-brown, sometimes tinged with reddish or purplish. =Flesh= yellowish. =Tubes= slightly decurrent, at first pale-yellow, then darker and tinged with green, becoming dingy-ochraceous with age. =Stem= equal or slightly tapering upward, somewhat fibrillose or floccose, slightly ringed, _hollow_, tawny-brown or yellowish-brown, yellowish at the top and marked by the decurrent dissepiments of the tubes, white within. =Veil= whitish, partly adhering to the margin of the pileus, soon disappearing. =Spores= 8–10×4µ. =Pileus= 1.5–4 in. broad. =Stem= 1.5–3 in. long, 3–6 lines thick. Swamps and damp mossy ground under or near tamarack trees. New York, _Peck_; New England, _Frost_. The pileus is clothed with a fibrillose tomentum which becomes more or less united into floccose tufts or scales. The umbo is not always present and is generally small. The young stem may sometimes be stuffed, but, if so, it soon becomes hollow, though the cavity is irregular. The freshly shed spores have a greenish-yellow or olivaceous hue, but in time they assume a pale or yellowish-ochraceous hue. This species is apparently northern in its range. It loves cold sphagnous swamps in mountainous regions. _Peck_, Boleti of the U.S. West Virginia mountains under spruce trees. Haddonfield, N.J., among scrub pines. Mt. Gretna, Pa., among pines. It is of excellent consistency and of mild pleasant flavor. It is at its best in patties, croquettes and escallops. =B. appendicula´tus= Pk. =Pileus= fleshy, convex, glabrous, ochraceous-yellow, the margin appendiculate with an incurved membranous veil. =Flesh= pale-yellow, unchangeable. =Tubes= rather small, yellow, their mouths angular, unequal, becoming darker or brownish where wounded. =Stem= solid, slightly thickened at the base, yellow. =Spores= pale-yellow, oblong, 10–12×4µ. =Pileus= 4–8 in. broad. =Stem= 2–3 in. long, 4–6 lines thick. Under or near fir trees. Washington. September to December. _Yeomans._ _Peck_, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, Vol. 23, No. 10. =B. pic´tus= Pk. =Pileus= convex or nearly plane, at first covered with a _red fibrillose tomentum which soon divides into small scales revealing the yellow color of the pileus beneath_. =Flesh= yellow, often slowly changing to dull pinkish or reddish tints where wounded. =Tubes= tenacious, at first pale yellow, becoming darker or dingy ochraceous with age, sometimes changing to pinkish-brown where bruised, concealed in the young plant by the copious whitish webby veil. =Stem= equal or nearly so, solid, _slightly_ and somewhat evanescently annulate, clothed and colored like or a little paler than the pileus, yellowish at the top. =Spores= ochraceous, 9–11×4–5µ. =Pileus= 2–4 in. broad. =Stem= 1.5–3 in. long, 3–6 lines thick. Woods and mossy swamps. New York, _Peck_; New England, _Frost_; North Carolina, _Curtis_. _Peck_, Boleti of the U.S. West Virginia mountains, 1882. Haddonfield, N.J., Angora, West Philadelphia, Mt. Gretna, Pa. August and September. In mixed woods, principally oak. Leominster, Mass. _C.F. Nixon_, Ph. G. It is sometimes found upon much decayed chestnut stumps. The caps of some species are so cracked as to appear distinctly areolate. The white webby veil is often persistent. The fungus is one of the handsomest. Its rich variegated colors impress it upon eye-memory. It is one of the very best edible species. (Plate CXII_a_.) [Illustration: BOLETINUS PALUSTER. Natural size. (After Peck.) ] =B. palus´ter= Pk.—=Pileus= thin, broadly convex, plane or slightly depressed, sometimes with a small umbo, floccose-tomentose, _bright red_. =Tubes= very large, slightly decurrent, yellow, becoming ochraceous or dingy ochraceous. =Stem= slender, solid, subglabrous, red, yellowish at the top. =Spores= pinkish-brown, 8–9×4µ. =Pileus= 1–2 in. broad. =Stem= 1–2 in. long, 2–3 lines thick. Wet places and sphagnous mossy swamps. New York, _Peck_. Maine, _Harvey_. _Peck_, Boleti of the U.S. Angora, West Philadelphia and Mt. Gretna, Pa. September. _McIlvaine._ A few specimens found at Mt. Gretna had stems slightly reticulated. Its taste is sweet, smell mild, and cooked it is of excellent body and flavor. =B. deci´piens= (B. and C.) Pk. =Pileus= dry, minutely silky, _whitish-yellow or pale-buff_, flesh buff, one-third in. thick; hymenium plane or somewhat concave, yellow, consisting of large, unequal, flexuous radiating tubes resembling multiseptate lamellæ. =Stem= equal, solid but spongy. Veil floccose, evanescent, adhering for a time to the margin of the pileus. =Spores= rather minute, oblong, _ochraceo-ferruginous_ (rusty yellow), 8–10×3.5–4µ. =Pileus= 2 in. broad. Stem 2–2.5 in. long, 3–4 lines thick. Thin woods. North and South Carolina. _M.A. Curtis._ Specimens of this species have not been seen by me. The authors remark that its affinities are clearly with Boletinus flavidus and its allies, from which it is distinguished by its large radiating pores. They also say that when dry it is scarcely distinguishable from Paxillus porosus Berk., except by its spores. This would imply that its stem is eccentric or lateral, and I have been informed by Mr. Ravenel that it is sometimes so. But specimens of this kind, labeled Boletinus decipiens B. and C., have been received, which show by their spores that they are Paxillus porosus. Besides, Professor Farlow informs me that authentic specimens of B. decipiens in the Curtisian Herbarium have only central stems, from which things I suspect that the two species have been confused. The spore dimensions here given are derived from a specimen in the Curtis Herbarium, through the kindness of Professor Farlow. _Peck_, Boleti of the U.S. I have not recognized this Boletinus. Its affinities are with excellent edible species. [Illustration: Photographed by Dr. J.R. Weist. PLATE CXIII. BOLETINUS POROSUS. ] =B. poro´sus= (Berk.) Pk. (Plate CXIII.) =Pileus= fleshy, viscid when moist, shining, reddish-brown. =Flesh= 3–9 lines thick, the margin thin and even; hymenium porous, yellow, formed by radiating lamellæ a line to half a line distant, branching and connected by numerous irregular veins of less prominence and forming large angular pores. =Stem= lateral, tough, diffused into the pileus, reticulated at the top by the decurrent walls of the tubes, colored like the pileus. =Spores= semi-ovate. =Pileus= 2–5 in. broad. =Stem= 6–16 lines long, 4–6 lines thick. Var. _opa´cus_ (Paxillus porosus Berk., Bull. N.Y. State Mus. 2, p. 32). =Pileus= dry, glabrous or subtomentose, not shining, brown or tawny-brown. =Spores= brownish-ochraceous, 9–11×6–8µ. Damp ground in woods and open places. Ohio, _Lea_, _Morgan_; North Carolina, _Curtis_; New England, _Frost_, _Farlow_; Wisconsin, _Bundy_; New York, _Peck_. This species is remarkable for its lateral or eccentric stem. There is often an emargination in the pileus on the side of the stem which gives it a kidney shape. In the typical form it is described as viscid when moist, and the Wisconsin plant is also described as viscid, but in all the New York specimens that I have seen it is dry and sometimes minutely tomentose. I have, therefore, separated these as a variety. The color of the pileus varies from yellowish-brown to reddish-brown or umber. A disagreeable odor is sometimes present. The tubes are rather short and tough and do not easily separate from the hymenophore and from each other. In the young plant they are not separable. They sometimes become slightly blue where wounded. As in other species they are pale yellow when young, but become darker or dingy-ochraceous with age. The spores have been described as bright yellow, but I do not find them so in the New York plant. The plant is incongruous among the Paxilli by reason of its wholly porous hymenium, but in this place it seems to be among its true allies. _Peck_, Boleti of the U.S. Fine specimens were sent to me by Mr. H.I. Miller, Terre Haute, and Dr. J.R. Weist, Richmond, Ind. They were in condition to be eaten and enjoyed. No disagreeable odor was perceptible. =B. borea´lis= Pk. =Pileus= fleshy, convex, obtuse or subumbonate, brownish-yellow, obscurely and somewhat reticulately streaked with reddish-brown lines. =Pores= large, angular, unequal, slightly decurrent, brownish-yellow. =Stem= short, equal or slightly tapering upward, brownish-yellow with a whitish myceloid tomentum at the base. =Spores= oblong, 10–12.5×4–5µ. =Pileus= 1–2 in. broad. =Stem= about 1 in. long. Sandy soil. Capstan Island, Labrador. October. _Waghorne._ The markings of the pileus appear as if due to the drying of a glutinous substance. The radiating lamellæ and the transverse partitions of the interspaces are very plainly shown. Described from two dried specimens. _Peck_, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. 22, No. 5. =BOLE´TUS= Dill. _Gr_—a clod. The name of a fungus considered a great delicacy among the Romans, derived from _bolos_, a clod, probably to denote the round figure of the plant. =Hymenium= wholly composed of small tubes, connected together in a stratum, the surface of which is dotted with their poriform mouths, and which is distinct from the hymenophore on account of the latter not descending into a trama. =Tubes= packed close together, easily separating from the hymenophore and from one another. =Pores= or mouths of the tubes round or angular (in the subgenus Gyrodon sinuous or gyroso-plicate). =Spores= normally fusiform, rarely oval or somewhat round. _Growing on the ground, fleshy, putrescent, with central stems. Mostly edible, and of importance as articles of food; a few poisonous._ _Fries._ No American species in Gyrodon. It is therefore omitted in synopsis of tribes. _C.M._ This genus abounds in species and is related to Boletinus on one hand and to Polyporus on the other. From the latter it is distinguished by the absence of a trama and from both by the tubes being easily separable from the hymenophore and from each other. Some of the species are very variable, others are so closely allied that they appear to almost run together. The species are generally terrestrial, but B. hemichrysus is habitually wood-growing, and others are occasionally so. The spores vary so much in color in such closely related species that this character is scarcely available for general classification, but it is valuable as a specific character and should always be noted. SYNOPSIS OF THE TRIBES. Pileus and stem yellow-pulverulent, stem not reticulated with veins (p. 421.) Pulverulenti Pileus and stem not yellow-pulverulent, or if so then the stem reticulated with veins 1