THE FLY A GARIC DESCRIBED. 3 2 9 



death, the poisonous fungus from that which safely and plea- 

 santly tickles the palate. The warning is useful, moreover, as 

 showing that even sensualists are not wholly exempt from the 

 law of work. 



The Amanita, like most falsehoods, is pleasant to the sight. 

 Its round pileus, of a beautiful orange-red colour, spotted with 

 white warts, and lined with white gills, 

 seems to invite your attention. (Fig. 73.) 

 Strike it down with your stick; the 

 lamellae or gills underneath resemble the 

 white leaves of a book. Its graceful 

 stalk, ornamented on the upper part by 

 a well-designed necklet, is bulbous in its 

 lower portion ; its flesh is dazzlingly 



FIG. 73. The Amanita 



white ; in short, its entire appearance is M^caria. 



attractive. Yet it is a traitor ! You little know the depth of 

 its wickedness. Mix a few shreds of its white flesh with a 

 little milk ; every fly which drinks of the mixture will, in a few 

 seconds, fall dead, their swollen abdomen bearing testimony 

 to the effect of the poison. And in many districts of Ger- 

 many, particularly in Thuringia, the peasants make use of it 

 to rid themselves of the swarms of flies which, towards the 

 close of summer, infest their habitations. It is thus that man 

 may frequently turn to his advantage those objects of nature 

 which, at the first glance, appear injurious rather than useful. 



Various experiments have been essayed to test the intoxi- 

 cating influence of our Amanita. Bulliard, author of the 

 " Histoire des Champignons de France," made two cats 



