THE WHITE-SPORED AGARICS 



25 



The history of this plant is as interesting as a novel. Its deadly properties 

 were known to the Greeks and Romans. The pages of history record its undoing 

 and its accessory to crime. Pliny says, alluding to this species, "very conveniently 

 adapted for poisoning." This was undoubtedly the species that Agrippina, the" 

 mother of Nero, used to poison her husband, the Emperor Claudius ; and the 



Figure 14. Amanita muscaria. Linn. One-half natural size, showing development of the plant. 



same that Nero used in that famous banquet when all his guests, his tribunes and 

 centurions, and Agrippina herself, fell victims to its poisonous properties. 



However, it is said this mushroom is habitually eaten by certain people as 

 an intoxicant; indeed, it is used in Kamchatka and Asiatic Russia, generally, 

 where the Amanita drunkard takes the place of the opium fiend and the alcohol 

 bibber in other countries. By reading Colonel George Kennan in his "Tent-life 



