NATURAL HISTORY, TORONTO REGION 



seem to be not more than two or three species which 

 are likely to be taken for edible mushrooms but are 

 poisonous. There are several more or less hurtful 

 species which by their peculiar appearance or dis- 

 agreeable taste warn off or offer no temptation to the 

 experimenter. The Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria} 

 and Amanita phalloides (including all its varieties, 

 and Amanita verna among them) are, so far as I 

 have discovered in the Toronto district, the only 

 forms which are dangerous, and of these Amanita. 

 muscaria raises a warning signal by its bright orange 

 or yellow-orange colour, and is naturally avoided as 

 a poisonous " toadstool." Both these species are 

 extremely common in woody places near Toronto 

 towards the end of August or during the first two 

 weeks of September. The variety of Amanita phal- 

 loides, which has a brownish pileus, has probably 

 been frequently mistaken by those who have no know- 

 ledge of the subject for the common field mushroom, 

 with unfortunate and often fatal result ; but any one 

 who has even a slight acquaintance with the botanical 

 points of difference could soon without difficulty dis- 

 tinguish the one from the other. There is, however, 

 some danger, it seems to me, that an inaccurate begin- 

 ner in the study of fungi may from insufficiently 

 careful examination mistake the white varieties of 

 Amanita phalloides for Lepiota naucinoides, where 

 they are together in the collection basket, or where 

 from some accidental cause the one has trespassed 

 on the domain of the other. Young specimens, too, 

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