60 



STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI. 



mushroom. The bulb of the deadly amanita is usually inserted 

 quite deep in the soil or leaf mold, and specimens are often picked 

 leaving the very important character of the volva in the ground, and 

 then the plant might easily be taken for the common mushroom, or 

 more likely for the smooth lepiota, Lepiota naucina, which is entirely 

 white, the gills only in age showing a faint pink tinge. It is very 

 important, therefore, that, until one has such familiarity with these 

 plants that they are easily recognized in the absence of some of 

 these characters, the stem should be carefully dug from the soil. 

 In the case of the specimens of the deadly amanita growing in the 

 lawn on the campus of Cornell University, the stems were sunk to 

 three to four inches in the quite hard ground. 



Amanita verna Bull. Deadly Poisonous. The Amanita verna is by 

 some considered as only a white form of the Amanita phalloides. 



It is of a pure white color, 

 and this in addition to its 

 very poisonous property 

 has led to its designation 

 as the "destroying 

 angel." 



The pileus is smooth 

 and viscid when moist ; 

 the gills free ; the stem 

 stuffed or hollow in age ; 

 the annulus forms a broad 

 collar, and the volva is 

 split at the apex, and 

 being quite stout, the 

 free limb is prominent, 

 and it hugs more or less 

 closely to the base of the 

 stem. Figure 59 repre- 

 sents the form of the 

 plant which Gillet recog- 

 nizes as A. Tcnu ; the pilus convex, the annulus broad and entire, 

 and the stem scaly. These floccose scales are formed as a result of 

 the separation of the annulus from the outer layer of the stem. 



The characters presented in the formation of the veil and annulus 

 in this species are very interesting, and sometimes present two of 

 the types in the formation of the veil and annulus found in the genus 

 Amanita. In the very young plant, in the button stage, as the 

 young gills lie with their edges close against the side of the stem, 



FIC.URE 60. Amanita verna, " buttons," cap bursting through 

 the volva ; left-hand plant in section (natural size). Copy- 

 right. 



