26 AGARICINI. 



to be found on the barren steppes over which they wander ; so tliat they 

 are obliged for the most part to buy it, at enormous prices, from the 

 Russian traders. It may sound strangely to American ears, but the invi- 

 tations which a convivial Korak extends to his passing friend is not, 

 ' Come in and have a drink,' but, ' Won't you come in and take a toad- 

 stool ? ' Not a very alluring proposal perhaps to a ci\'ilized toper, but 

 one which has a magical effect upon a dissipated Korak. As the supply 

 of these toadstools is by no means equal to the demand, Korak ingenuity 

 has been greatly exercised in the endeavor to economize the precious 

 stimulant, and make it go as far as possible. Sometimes, in the course 

 of human events, it becomes imperatively necessar}- that a whole band 

 shall get drunk together, and they have only one toadstool to do it with. 

 For a description of the manner in which this band gets drunk collec- 

 tively and individually upon one fungus, and keeps drunk for a week, 

 the curious reader is referred to Goldsmiih's ' Citizen of the World,' 

 Letter 32. It is but just to say, however, that this horrible practice is 

 almost entirely confined to the settled Koraks of Penzhinsk Gulf — the 

 lowest, most degraded portion of the whole tribe. It may prevail to a 

 limited extent among the wandering natives, but I never heard of more 

 than one such instance outside of Penzhinsk Gulf settlement." — Tetit 

 Life in Siberia. 



The active principle called amanitine or muscarine is used in medicine 

 for consumptive night sweats. The homeopathic provings cover quite a 

 number of s^-mptoms. 



Locality, Trexlertown cemetery, under a hemlock tree, chaparral ridge- 

 wood, etc. Not very abundant. Fuller's woods, near Catasauqua, 



A. Spreta. Pk. Despised Agaric. 



Pileus, subovate, then convex or expanded, smooth or at 

 first adorned with a few fragments of the volva, slighth' striate 

 on the margin, whitish or pale-brown. 



Gills, close, reaching the stem, white. 



Stem, equal, smooth, slightly pruinose above the white 

 annulus, stuffed or hollow, whitish, finely striate at the top, 

 inserted at the base in the rather large persistent membraneous, 

 somewhat sheathing, volva ; spores elliptical, .0004 to .0005 

 inch long, .00025 to ,0003 inch broad, generally containing a 

 single large nucleus. 



