22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Ulmaria rubra Hill. 

 Balfour place near Aiden Lair, Essex co. July. 

 The queen of the prairie has been introduced into our State from 

 the West and is found in dooryards and flower gardens where it is 

 cultivated for ornament. It sometimes escapes from cultivation 

 or persists about the sites of old destroyed or abandoned dwell- 

 ings. It is described in Gray's Manual under the name Spi- 

 raea lobata. 



D 



REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS 



Agastache scrophulariaefolia (Willd.) Kuntze 

 Roadside. Wells, Hamilton co. August. A showy form 

 having purplish bracts and calyx lobes. It is sparingly pubescent 

 and in this respect it approaches A. nepetoides, but it has 

 the thicker spikes and more pointed calyx lobes of A. scroph- 

 ulariaefolia. 



Amanita muse aria formosa (G. & R.) Fr. 

 Several instances have been reported to me in which this variety 

 of the fly amanita, a poisonous species, has been eaten without 

 harm. In all these instances except one, the mushroom was eaten 

 by those who were at the time ignorant or unsuspicious of its 

 true relationship. In September, Mr A. P. Hitchcock of New 

 Lebanon reported to me a case in which a sheep ventured to try 

 the edible qualities of this mushroom. He says : 



While I was gathering a few specimens of boletus in the pas- 

 tures one evening last week, my cosset buck sheep, which follows 

 me about like a dog, watched my proceedings with close attention 

 for a time. Then, having assured himself of what I was doing 

 he walked to a small group of the fly amanita, which grows luxuri- 

 antly in places in my fields, and proceeded to gobble down about 

 a dozen fair sized specimens, eating the caps as greedily as he 

 eats lump sugar from my hand. This was at least three days ago 

 and perhaps more. He is still with us and in no way worse for 

 his indulgence. Does this mean that I have mistaken some other 

 sort for the fly amanita or that what is food for a buck sheep may 

 be poison for a man? The amanita in question had the orange 

 yellow color and the bulbous stem of A. muscaria. 



In this as in all other cases of harmless eating of the fly amanita 

 that have been reported to me the variety formosa is indicated. 



