But it is well for the amateur to avoid these notorious species absolutely until their edibility becomes universally accepted by the "professionals."
The _Boletus felleus_ (Plate 24, fig. 1) is a very common species. The pinkish substance of this Boletus is so extremely bitter when raw as to make it sufficiently repellent as food. The color of its smooth cap varies from creamy yellow to reddish brown. Substance white in young specimens, flesh color or pinkish in older individuals. Tube surface white at first, becoming pinkish. Opening of tubes, angled. Stem usually more or less netted with raised lines towards cap. Spores pinkish or "flesh colored." Common in rich soil in woods.
[Illustration: _Boletus alveolatus Boletus felleus_]
=Pileus:= Smooth, polished; bright, deep crimson or maroon, occasionally mottled or marbled with yellowish; three to six inches in diameter.
=Flesh:= Firm and solid in substance; pale greenish or yellowish white, changing blue in fracture or where bruised.
=Tubes:= Tube-surface reaching the stem proper; undulate with uneven hollows; maroon, the tubes in section being yellow beyond their dark red mouths.
=Stem:= Usually disproportionately long, covered with depressions or oblong pitted indentations, with intermediate coarse network of raised ridges; red and yellow.
=Pileus:= At first firm in substance, becoming soft and cushion-like; smooth, without polish, varying in color from pale ochre to yellowish or reddish brown; diameter three to nine inches.
=Flesh:= White on immediate section, generally changing to slight pinkish or flesh color in fracture.
=Tubes:= Tube-surface rounded upward as it reaches stem; white at first, becoming dull pinkish with age, or upon being bruised.
=Stem:= Usually quite stout, nearly as smooth as the cap, and somewhat lighter in color; more or less ridged with coarse reticulations, occasionally covered with them to its thickened base.
=Habitat:= Rich woods and copses, often about decaying trunks.
[Illustration: SUSPICIOUS BOLETI. BOLETUS ALVEOLATUS. B. FELLEUS.]
_Boletus alveolatus_.--Pileus smooth and polished, usually rich crimson or maroon, sometimes varied with paler yellowish tints. Substance very solid, changing to blue on fracture or bruise. Tube surface deep dull crimson or maroon, this color not extending the full length of the pores, which are yellow a short distance above their mouths. The stem is quite stout and tall for the size of the cap as compared with other Boleti. It is mottled in yellow and bright red or crimson, and conspicuously meshed with a network of firm ridges. The spores are yellowish brown. A conspicuous and easily identified species.