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Caesar's Amanita {edible)! 



1. Volva persistent at the base 

 of the stem in the form of a cup. 



2. Pileus bright orange or rarely 

 paler yellowish, smooth. 



3. Gills and stem pale yellow. 



4. Gills free, i. e. separate from 

 the stem. 



The Fly-agaric (poisonous)! 



1. No cup ; base of stem mostly 

 bulbous and scaly. 



2. Pileus orange or yellow 

 adorned with flocculent warts con- 

 sisting of patches of the ruptured 

 volva. 



3. Gills and stem white, the gills 

 rarely slightly yellow-tinted. 



4. Gills attached to the stem 

 and appearing to run down it in 

 the form of slight ridges.* 



Fig. 3. Amanita muscaria; Poisonous, showing scaly bulbous 

 base without a cup, and the floccose volva appearing in patches on 

 the pileus. Color of pileus pale yellow to reddish yellow. About X 

 natural size. 



lu Figure 3 we give an illustration of the fly-agaric which 

 resembles Caesar's Amanita slightly. It will be noted that 

 the cup is not present at the base of the stem. This one 

 character combined with the bright color of the fungus is 

 the one character on which we must rely to determine the 

 question of its edibility. If the cup is present the plant is 

 safe ; if it is absent the plant is poisonous. 



* A second smaller species {Amanita Frostiana) closely allied 

 to the fly-agaric and doubtless often confused with it, differs 

 by lacking this striate upper portion of the stem. It rarely has a pi- 

 leus more than one or two inches in diameter while the fly-agaric is 

 much larger. In other characters it is very much like the fly-agaric. 



