Saocardo in his SyWxje describos no loss tlian fifteen edil)le species of 

 Amanita as found in different i)arts of the woild. Of these I have per- 

 sonally been able to identify but three which are common in this country, 

 and which have been well tested. Specimens of these three species are 

 illustrated in Plates XIV and XIV^ of this pamphlet. They are each and 

 all found in varying abundance in different parts of the United States. 



Plate XIV. 



Fir,s. 1 to 4. — Ag. (Amanita) Caesareus Scop. (Amanita Caesarea). 



" Orange Amanita," " Tnie Oranc/r.'" 



Edible. 



Cap at first convex, afterwards well expanded ; smooth, free from warts, 

 striate on the margin : color orans-e-red or bright lemon-yellow, with red 

 disk : gills lemon-yellow, rounded near the stem, and free from it ; stem 

 equal or slightly tapering upwards, stufited with cottony fibrils, or hollow 

 (color clear lemon-yellow), bearing a yellowish ring near the top and 

 sheathed at the base with large, loose, membranous, white volva. Odor 

 faint but agreeable. Spores white, elliptical. 



The whole plant is symmetrical in form, brilliant in coloring, clean and 

 attractive in appearance. The American plant seems to differ in some 

 slight respects from the European as figured and described in European 

 works. In Europe the pileus or cap is said to vary in color, being some- 

 times white, pale yellow, red or even copper color, although it is usually 

 orange-yellow. My own observation of the American plant of this species 

 agrees with that of Prof. Peck in that the cap is uniform in color, being 

 at first bright reddish-orange or even brilliant red, fading with age to 

 yellow, either wholly or only on the margin. No white specimens have 

 been as yet recorded in this country. The red color disappears in the 

 dried specimens. The striations of the margin are usually quite deep and 

 long and almost as distant as in the edible species Amanitopsis vaginata. 

 Some European writers have described the flesh or substance of the cap 

 as yellowish. In our plant the flesh is white, but stained with yellow or 

 red immediately under the cuticle. Amanita (Jmsarea is the only one of 

 the Amanitas which has yellow gills. 



Berkeley, in his " Outlines of British Fungi," describes A. C?esarea as 

 it is found in some parts of Continental Europe, but states that up to the 

 date of his writing it had not been found in Great Britain. It is not re- 

 corded in the more recent lists of British fungi by M. C. Cooke nor in 

 that of Australian fungi by the same author. The species has a wide 

 range in this country, and though not very common in the North, in some 

 localities, as in the pine and oak woods of North Carolina, it is found in 

 »reat abundance. Dufour states that it is much esteemed as an esculent 

 in France, and though rare in the northern part of that country, it is 



