76 AN HISTORY OF FUNGUSSES.
LXXXIX. BOLETUS acaulisTlobatis coriaceis, lobis linguiformibus.
elegant.
E L E G A N T BOLETUS.
T A B . 1XXVI.
'TpHIS elegant plant grew in an upright direction; it.confifted
of ten or twelve principal lobes, which united near the
root, and formed a kind of thick irregular item, of a blackifh
colour, and an hard tough fubftance; thefe firft or principal lobes
increafe in breadth, from the bafe to the extremity, where each
is fubdivided into three or four other lobes, of a roundiih
tongue-ihape, blunt at the end, and a little waved on the edges.
Of the primary diviiions or lobes, thofe in the centre are
the ihorteft, thofe on the outfide longeft j fo that the whole
plant together forms a rude kind of funnel-ihape. ~ The upper
furface appears to the eye to be a little fcaly, but is fmooth and
velvety to the touch, and varies from a dulky brown to a kind
of cinnamon colour.
The tubes, atB. are fmall and very numerous, the pores
round and white; while young they appear as if covered with a
fine white velvety duft, but on being touched immediately lofe
the white, and change to a dirty brown. The internal fubftance,
at A. is thin, white, and extremely tough; it eaiily
divides in fine filaments, from the top of the lobes quite down
to the root j which filaments immediately after their divifion,
on being irritated, feemed to exhibit motions juft like thofe of
a nyifcular fibre.
This plant grew amongft the fragments of a decayed elm
root, in Crofs-Field, at Halifax, in Auguft, 1786, and again in
the fame place in July, 1788. I find no defcription or figure
properly expreffive of this fp ecies. The figure in Battarra,
Tt. 34. Fig. B. which Hudfon cites for the Boletus coriaceus,
fomewhat refembks my plant. Hudfon's B. coriaceus is the fame
•with my B. tenax, but I think that my tenax and elegans are
diftin£l Jpecies.