24 AGARICINI. 



Diagnosis. The beautiful discrete warts of pileus and the concentric 

 rings of the bulbous stem. The volva, a character of the family, is 

 adnate to the stem and circumcissile. 



Properties. Very poisonous, yet the Siberians use it as an intoxicant. 

 The fungi are collected in the proper season and dried. The juice of the 

 whortleberry, in which this fungi has been steeped, acquires the intoxi- 

 cating propert}' of strong wine. Some of the effects are similar to the 

 indulgence of the Eastern haschisch. The natural inclinations become 

 stimulated. The musician indulges in an incoherent song, the chatterer 

 divulges all his secrets. Erroneous impressions of size and distance are 

 a common occurrence, a straw in the way becomes a formidable object to 

 overcome which a leap is taken high enough to clear a big barrel, etc. 



Dr. Harold Lentz, in his " Schwaemme des Deutschland," says: "In 

 the wild forest of Germany lived a man with his wife and child, who 

 made fleshy fungi their sole diet throughout the whole year, using them 

 fresh in their season, and dried during winter. He used all kinds indis- 

 criminately if they had a good and appetizing appearance, and that he 

 did not experience any harm from any of them. He being often warned 

 not to be too free vtnth the use of the different species, he accidentally 

 got a Fl}' Agaric, which nearly cost him his life. 



Cattle or Mild animals very seldom eat it, except the reindeer in Siberia 

 and Kamchatka. The wild reindeer are said to be partial to the taste of 

 fleshy fungi, eat them without selection, and occasionally get a Fly 

 Agaric. After a certain time they are stupefied and unable to walk ; so 

 as to be easily captured by tying their legs together, and keeping them 

 as prisoners until the poison ( Amanitine) is eliminated. If the animal is 

 killed before the poison is eliminated, and used, it is said to have the 

 same effect as if the toadstool had been used. 



Erman, a German traveler in Kamchatka, says: "That his guide 

 collected all the Fly Agarics, dried them and sold them to the Korans, 

 which they used as an intoxicant. He was traveling \vith him in that 

 country, always kept a few Fly Agarics with him, and whenever he had 

 a desire to get drunk, he would swallow a small piece with a drink of 

 water, which would put him in a debauch for several days." If all those 

 stories are true, the effect on those people must be quite different from 

 the modus operandi on our race. Ebighaus, a German mycologist, 

 doubts the truths of those people. He says they are a very deceitful race. 

 They got Czar Alexis to trj' it, which caused his life, together with some 

 French soldiers. I myself was rather skeptical at one time, but when I 

 had the authority of such a man as Col. Geo. Kennan, in his " Tent-life 



