verify_ssl_certificates in local.ini's [ssl] section doesn't work?

The shipped local.ini has this:
[ssl]
verify_ssl_certificates = false

When I add a cert_file and a key_file, and enable https in [daemons], couchdb refuses to start:
"Verify SSL certificate enabled but file containing PEM encoded CA certificates is missing".

The funny thing is that CouchDB doesn't refuse to start when the "verify_ssl_certificates" line is commented out.