62 THE AMERICAN HOTANIST. 



inclosed in a wrapping of tissue which ruptures as the 

 plant increases in size, part remaining on the cap in the 

 shape of white floccose warty patches, and the rest ad- 

 hering to the stem as scales, or appearing on the bulbous 

 base as concentric rings. In other species this enclosing 

 tissue ruptures in such a way as to form a cup about the 

 swollen base of the stem, and as these plants, too, are 

 poisonous, the cup-like base is often called the "death-cup". 

 Death certainly lurks wnthin it, and while not all mush- 

 rooms with such a base are poisonous, the beginner will 

 do well to avoid all of them until he knows for certain 

 that they are not. 



Before it is fully grown the cap is nearly hemispherical 

 in shape and bright scarlet in color. Later it expands, 

 and the color, especially on the margin, often fades to a 

 pale yellow, or even white, but the ordinary specimens are 

 usually orange or red in the centre even at maturity. The 

 stem, the gills, and the spores they bear, are pure white. 

 The gills do not extend quite to the stem, and are not all 

 of the same length. Just below the cap there is a thin veil 

 that was attached to the edge of the cap, when young, con- 

 cealing the gills but w^hich, when grown, hangs down as a 

 soft ring about the stem. 



Sometimes after heavy rains the white flakes on the 

 cap may disappear, but ordinarily the white patches on 

 the bright colored cap are very noticiable and quite suffi- 

 cient to identify it. 



The fly mushroom has no bad taste and no disagree- 

 able odor nor is it poisonous to the touch, but once intro- 

 duced into the alimentary canal is almost certain to pro- 

 duce death unless antidotes are administered at the first 

 symptoms of poisoning. There are many mushrooms that, 

 while not deadly poisonous, cause various disturbances of 

 digestion but these make themselves known soon after be- 

 ing eaten. Not so with the fly mushroom. It often does 

 not manifest an alarming symptom until from six to 

 fifteen hours after it is eaten allowing time enough for an- 

 other meal to be taken which is often blamed for the 



