November, 1906] Mycological Bulletin Nos. 69 and 70 



NOTES FROM MUSHROOM LITERATURE. V. 



W. A. Kcllcrman. 



Another Fly Agaric. — Under thi.s title D. R. Sumstine gives in the 

 Jouriial of Mycology for November, 1905, the following note: 



Amanita muscaria is called the fly agaric because infusions of it are 

 poisonous to flies. It has now, however, a keen rival for this reputation 

 in another species of the same genus. Last summer while drying speci- 

 mens of Amanita olitaria Bull, a number of flies were attracted to them. 

 .'X.fter the flies had remained on the plants for a short time they fell 

 over apparently dead. This continued until thirty-nine fly mycophagists 

 had become the victims of some narcotic contained in the mushrooms. 

 'i'he box with flies and plants was then set aside for future study. After 

 two hours the box was again examined, but the flies which once were 

 dead were now alive and had departed with no more serious results 

 possibly than a severe headache from their mycological "booze." 



Several experiments were made with other specimens of the same 

 species and the same results were obtained. It seems that this plant has 

 some property that acts as an into.xicant or soporific to flies. It is reported 

 by some writers as edible and by others as poisonous. 



SoMETHiNc; INTERESTING .\BouT THE MoRELLE. — The following was pub- 

 lished in the Journal of Mycology, November, 1905, by W. C. Sturgis. 

 under the title Remarkable Occurrence of Morchclla Esculenta (L.)Pers: 

 During a recent hunting trip in southwestern British Columbia the writer 

 came across this fungus growing in such abundance and in a location and ■ 

 at a season of the year so unusual that the circumstances seem worth 

 recording. Usually one expects to find Morchclla in the Spring growing 

 on the borders of meadows or other grassy places. In the present instance 

 the plarts were found in September on a steep mountain side which had, 

 within a little over a year, been subjected to a destructive forest fire. 



On September 11th the writer was skirting the precipitous side of a 

 mountain at an altitude of about 7,000 feet, and while passing through what 

 had been a fairly p-cod growth of aspens and small spruces, a few fine 

 specimens of Morchclla were noticed. Further ,;earch revealed the pres- 

 ence of these plants literally in hundreds. A fire had passed across the 

 mountain in Jure, 1904, leaving only skeletons of the trees standing and 

 charring the ground to such a depth that no trace of green vegetation had 

 since appeared. Yet under these unfavorable circumstances and at a sea- 

 son when snow had already fallen not far from the locality, a bushel of 

 Morchcllps mifrht have been gathered within a radius of one hundred 

 yards. The specimens were exceptionally fine, in some cases attaining a 

 lu'is.dit of seven inches and a circumference around the pileus of ten 

 irches. In such specimens the pileus usually showed a great variety of 

 form, from conical and flattened to nearly spherical. In other cases the 

 pileus more nearly resembled that of .1/. conica Pers. The base of the 

 stipe was in all cases much swollen and consisted of a mass of mycelium 

 c-nd soil cemented into a sclerotoid mass. Specimens were secured from 

 which the identity of the fungus was later determined. 



The interesting question arises whether, on the western slopes of the 

 Rocky mountains, Morchclla usually occurs in the autumn rather than in 

 the spring, as elsewhre. and also how the presence of the particular speci- 

 mens is to be accounted for. It is hardly possible that the spores 

 could have been carried to the locality in sufficient quantity to have pro- 

 duced in one se?son so large a growth of plarts, and it is almost equally 

 j,-^onceivab'c that a subterrar.can mycelium could have resisted a degree 

 of heat sufficient to destroy pcrmancntlv all surfncc vegetation and leave 

 the ground a desolate waste of charred clay. 



PoLVPORur. OBTusus. — We have learned to expect a goodly number of 

 mycological articles in each new .Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical 



