POISONOUS PLANTS 173 



alone, no matter how edible some species may be 

 under proper conditions. The more or less distinct 

 cup -like setting to the stem is a good mark of 

 identification to the fatal Death Cup, for the nov- 

 ice. Let him avoid it. 



Fly Amanita is the most picturesque and strik- 

 ing of our earth -growing fungi, and where it ap- 

 pears in profusion, as it does under the evergreens 

 in our home grounds during the Autumn months, 

 it is a plant of decided landscape value, introducing 

 gamboge, orange, and even vermilion into deep shade 

 which, the season through, knows no other colors 

 than the green of Ferns and Partridge Vine, with 

 the brown of leaf-mold. 



This Amanita is stout of stem and cap. I gath- 

 ered some specimens last September that stood a 

 foot high, and measured fourteen inches across the 

 white gilled cap which varied through all shades of 

 yellow to red and was covered with corklike warts. 

 The swelled, scaly base of the stalk does not take 

 a clearly marked cup -shape, as in kindred forms. 

 Fortunately, however, there is no chance of mis- 

 taking this gorgeous creature for the safe and Cin- 

 derella-like Meadow Mushroom. The plant is a 

 deadly poison, whose juices are used in Europe as 

 the basis of fly poisons, and when eaten by man 



