cracked on the margin, and the upturning of the margin often exposes the
tubes. Painting, as of this species, identified by Professor Peck.
The taste is at first sweet, then bitter. The bitterness is lost in
cooking. Edible, good.
=B. indeci´sus= Pk.—undecided. (Plate CXXII, fig. 1, p. 468.) =Pileus=
convex or nearly plane, dry, slightly tomentose, ochraceous-brown, often
wavy or irregular on the margin. =Flesh= white, unchangeable; taste
mild. =Tubes= nearly plane or convex, _adnate_, grayish becoming tinged
with flesh color when mature, changing to brownish where wounded, their
mouths small, subrotund. =Stem= minutely furfuraceous, straight, or
flexuous, _reticulated above_, pallid without and within. =Spores=
oblong, _brownish flesh color_, 12.5–15×4µ.
=Pileus= 3–4 in. broad. =Stem= 2–4 in. long, 4–6 lines thick.
Thin oak woods. New York, _Peck_.
The mild taste and darker colored spores will separate this Boletus from
any form of B. felleus. Its stem reticulated above distinguishes it from
B. alutarius. It resembles B. modestus in some respects, but its tubes
are not at all yellow. _Peck_, Boleti of the U.S.
Kentucky, _Lloyd_, Rep. 4.
Woodland Cemetery, Philadelphia, July, 1897, _McIlvaine_; Trenton, N.J.,
August, 1897, _Sterling_. In open mixed woods.
Boletus indecisus so closely resembles B. felleus in some of its forms
that until the color of the spores is ascertained, the sweet taste,
without trace of bitter, is the only thing that will enable the finder
to discriminate between them. Young B. felleus are at first pleasant to
the taste and do not, at once, develop their intense bitter in the
mouth. They may readily be taken for B. indecisus. If, by mistake, a
single B. felleus is cooked with mild species, the dish will be spoiled.
Specimens believed to be B. indecisus should be tested. A minute will
perfectly satisfy anyone.
The B. indecisus is delicious.
[Illustration: Grouped by F.D. Briscoe—Studies by C.
McIlvaine. PLATE CXXII.]
FIG. PAGE. FIG. PAGE.