LEUCOSPORI. 3 



nate with the base of the stem, but only nestling in it and distinct from it. Amanita. 

 Pileus naked or clothed with broad membranaceous patches of the volva. 



* Volva splitting regularly all round, the base marginate and persistent, 

 the calyptra (hood) broken up into thick warts on the pi lens. Volva adnate, 

 at first enclosing the whole fungus, but the pileus is raised above the base of 

 the stem and distinct from it, and therefore when it expands, the volva being 

 adnate is necessarily split round about between their margins. 



*** Whole volva friable, broken up into small scales or warts, and not per- 

 sistent at the base of the stem, which is therefore altogether homogeneous and 

 immarginate. Base of the stem somewhat rooted, growing in the ground and 

 not within the volva, at first globoso-bulbous, but in various species depressed 

 above by the pressure of the margin of the pileus ; as the stem lengthens, the 

 bulb is more and more effaced. The pileus at the very first appears as a 

 small ball above the distinct base of the stem. The veil is generally rather 

 thin, and hence in moist weather the fragments of it on the pileus appear as 

 irregular, floccoso-mealy patches, which are easily brushed off, but in dry 

 weather they assume the form of minute adherent warts with blackish scorched 

 points. In some species the volva is thicker, and the warts even in moist 

 weather are polygonal. 



**** Volva quite rudimentary, Jlocculose, wholly disappearing. Stem at 

 first lengthened out, and hence the base is never depressed. There is more 

 frequently no trace of the universal veil ; the partial one however forming a 

 superior ring and the distinct hymenophore distinguish the group from the 

 Armilla/ise. 



B. RING OBLITERATED OR WANTING. 



A. RING MANIFEST, SUPERIOR. 

 * Volva bursting at the top, &*c. 



1. A. virosus Fr. Wholly shining white. Pileus 7.5-10 cent. 

 (3-4 in.) broad, fleshy, at first conical and acute, afterwards cam- 

 panulate then expanded, naked, viscous in wet weather, shining 

 when dry, margin always even, but most frequently unequal 

 repand and inflexed ; flesh white, unchangeable. Stem 10-15 

 cent. (4-6 in.) long, wholly stitffed, almost solid, split up into longi- 

 tudinal fibrils, cylindrical from the bulbous base, often compressed 

 at the apex, torn into scales on the surface, springing from a lax, 

 wide, thick volva, which bursts open at the apex. Ring apical, 

 lax, silky, splitting up into floccose fragments. Gills free, thin, 

 linear-lanceolate but a little broader in front, not decurrent on the 

 stem (although the apex of the stem is often striate), crowded, 

 somewhat floccose at the edge. 



The pilei are most frequently oblique, extended and lobed on one side as in 

 Hygrophorus conicus, scarcely ever depressed. The pileus rarely becomes 

 yellow. The fragments of the veil often adhere to the edge of the gills. 



In woods. Uncommon. Aug.-Oct. 



Fcetid, poisonous. Spores spheeroid or subsphaeroid, 10-16 mk. K.; 8 mk. 

 W.P. Name virus, poison, stink. Fr. Monogr. i. p. 3. Hym. F.ur. p. 



