Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms: I. 



25 



phalloides which I found in a lawn the stem was about 7 cm. (nearly 

 three inches) deep in the ground, so that by simply picking the plant 

 by the cap, the most important character, the volva, would be lost, 

 and by a novice the plant might be taken for the Lepiota naucina. 

 Some of the specimens of Amanita phalloides which I have collected 

 this summer might even be 

 taken by a novice for the 

 Agaricus campestris if the 

 volva were not obtained. 

 Jn some of the young speci- 

 mens the gills were decidedly 

 pink, so much so that 

 several persons who saw 

 the plants remarked on the 

 pink color of the gills and 

 they were not aware of the 

 significance of this fact. It 

 should he stated, however, 

 that the pink color of the 

 gills in these young speci- 

 mens of Amanita phalloides 

 is not nearly so deep as the 

 pink color of the gills of 

 Agaricus campestris. 



A pure white plant very 

 closely related to this white 

 form of Amanita phalloides. 

 which occurs in the spring 

 or early summer, is con- 

 sidered by some to be a 

 distinct species called Afna- 

 ?iita verna. These pure 

 while forms of some ama- 

 nitas, because of their dead- 

 ly poisonous property, are sometimes called " the destroying angel." 



Shortly after the pileus of these plants breaks through the 

 volva and the stem is elongating, they are very sensitive to the 

 directive influence which the earth, or gravity, exerts on the 



106. — Amanita phalloides. White form, 

 showing pileuSj stipe^ annulus and 



volva. 



