Satanical Tube-Mushroom.Fig. 27.
(Boletus Satanas.)606.
The specimen figured I gathered in Crab-tree Wood, near Winchester, during an architectural excursion to St. Cross. I have only once seen anything of it elsewhere, though my late friend Mrs. Gulson, of Eastcliff, has sent it on to me several times from the neighbourhood of Teignmouth.
Without doubt it is by far the most splendid of all theBoleti. The top is nearly white, very fleshy, and a little viscid; the stem is firm, exquisitely coloured, and beautifully reticulated; the undersurface is brilliant crimson. It usually attains a large size, grows in woods, and as soon as broken or bruised, changes to blue.
In all likelihood it is highly poisonous.