WHITE-SPORED AGARICS. 55 



lamells white or tinged with yellow ; stem white or yellowish, stuffed, 

 bearing a slight, sometimes evanescent annulus, bulbous at the 

 base, the bulb slightly margined by the volva ; spores globose," 

 7. 5-10 /i in diameter. He notes that it appears like a small form of 

 A. muscaria, to which it was first referred as var. minor, "The 

 only characters for distinguishing it are its small size and its globose 

 spores." It is near A. muscaria var. puella Pers. 



I have several times found this plant in the Adirondack moun- 

 tains, N. Y., and Ithaca, and also at Blowing Rock, N. C. The 

 volva is often yellowish, so that the warts on the pileus are also 

 yellow, and sometimes the only remnants of the volva on the base 

 of the stem are yellow or orange particles. The annulus is also 

 frequently yellow. In our plants, which seem to be typical, the 

 spores are nearly globose, varying to oval, and with the minute 

 point where the spore was attached to the sterigma at the smaller 

 end, the spores usually being finely granular, 6-9 fj. in diameter, 

 and rarely varying towards short elliptical, showing a tendency to 

 approach the shape of the spores of A. muscaria. The species as I 

 have seen it is a very variable one, large forms being difficult to 

 separate from A. muscaria, on the one hand, and others difficult to 

 separate from the depauperate forms of A. ccesarea. In the latter, 

 however, the striae are coarser, though the yellow color may be 

 present only on portions of the pileus. The spores of A. ccesarea 

 are from globose to oval, ovate or short elliptical, the globose ones 

 often agreeing in size with the spores of A. frostiana, but they 

 usually contain a prominent oil drop or ** nucleus," often nearly 

 filling the spore. In some specimens of A. frostiana the spores are 

 quite variable, being nearly globose, ovate to elliptical, approaching 

 the spores of A. muscaria. These intermediate forms should not in 

 themselves lead one to regard all these three species as representing 

 variations in a single variable species. With observations in the 

 field I should think it possible to separate them. 



Amanita phalloides Fr. Deadly Poisonous. The Amanita phalloides 

 and its various forms, or closely related species, are the most 

 dangerous of the poisonous mushrooms. For this reason the A. 

 phalloides is known as the deadly agaric, or deadly amanita. The 

 plant is very variable in color, the forms being pure white, or 

 yellowish, green, or olive to umber. Variations also occur in the 

 .way in which the volva ruptures, as well as in the surface characters 

 of the stem, and thus it is often a difficult matter to determine 

 whether all these forms represent a single variable species or whether 

 there are several species, and if so, what are the limits of these 



