68 BRITISH FUNGI 



loides). A. nibescens is likely to be confounded with A. pantherina, 

 a poisonous species, by the beginner, hence it is advisable to leave 

 s\)ec\Qs oi Amaniia severely alone, from the edible standpoint, until 

 the student is quite certain as to his determination. A. plialloides 

 is rather chfticult to distinguish from A. niappa, which is also 

 poisonous. 



No other agarics have a complete volva and ring present. 



The species are usually of large size, grow on the ground, and 

 speedily decay after reaching maturity. 



Amanitopsis 



This genus is closely allied to Amanita, and was included in that 

 genus at one time. It differs in the entire absence of a ring on the 

 stem, in fact the secondar}^ veil is entirely absent from the earliest 

 stage of development. The voh'a is ample and persistent ; the 

 upper portion of the primary veil is sometimes carried up by the 

 cap, and persists under the form of felty patches, in other examples 

 there is no trace of patches on the cap. These patches or warts in 

 Amanita and the present genus are usually readily separable from 

 the cuticle of the cap, and are only mechanically held or stuck to it, 

 and must not be confounded with true scales or warts formed bv the 

 true cuticle of the cap, as in other genera that follow. The gills are 

 perfectly free from the stem, there being an obvious space, devoid 

 of gills between the stem and the commencement of the gills. In 

 this genus it is usually stated in books that the flesh of the hymeno- 

 phore ( =-cap) is distinct from that of the stem, which means that 

 the stem shows a line of demarcation at the point where it enters 

 the flesh of the stem, and looks as if the rounded end of the stem 

 had been pushed into the flesh of the cap without having any 

 organic connection with it. The same character is obvious in the 

 most perfect forms of Amanita, but not in all the degraded 

 species. 



We have only one species in Britain (.-1. vaginata), having a 

 mouse-grey or dull lead-coloured cap. There are two varieties, one 

 entirely white, and the other with a tawny or orange-brown cap. 

 The typical form is one of the best of our edible fungi, but the tawny 

 variety is not wholesome. 



Lcpiota 

 The leading features of this genus are the free gills and the 

 presence of a ring on the stem. Tliere is no trace of a volva at any 

 stage of development. The structure of the stem is differentiated 

 from the flesh of the cap as in Amanita and Amanitopsis. This 

 structural feature is entirely absent from all the following genera. 

 As the student will now begin to expect, the features given above 

 as characteristic of the most highly developed, or central types of 



