Agaricaceae 



Amanita. The writer has not had opportunity to eat A. Caesarea. If such 

 should occur he would go about it very cautiously. No suspicion 

 attaches to it abroad, but evidence is accumulating in the hands of the 

 writer (not yet convincing) that either locality may render it poisonous 

 or that A. muscaria varies so much in appearance as to deceive even 

 the expert into mistaking it for A. Caesarea. It is possible that A. 

 muscaria is, at times, in certain localities, harmless; but no such ex- 

 ception as this is noted in the entire fungoid realm. It is not so common 

 that collectors should mourn its waste. It is better, far, to let it alone. 



**Volva splitting regularly all around; pileus bearing thick warts, etc. 



A. musca'l'ia Linn. nnisca, a fly. (Plate VI, fig. 4, p. 6. Plate 

 VIII.) POISONOUS. Pileus 4 in. and more broad, normally at first 

 blood-red, soon orange and becoming pale, whitening when old, globose, 

 then convex and at length flattened, covered with a pellicle which is at 

 first thick, and in wet weather glutinous, but which gradually disappears, 

 and sprinkled with thick, angular, separating fragments of the volva ; 

 margin when full-grown slightly striate. Flesh not compact, white, 

 yellow under the pellicle. Stem as much as a span long, shining white, 

 firm, torn into scales, at first stuffed with lax, spider-web fibrils, soon 

 hollow\ the adnate base of the volva forms an ovate bulb, which is mar- 

 ginate with concentric scales. Ring very soft, torn, even, inserted at 

 the apex of the stem, which is often dilated. Gills free, but reaching 

 the stem, decurrent in the form of lines, crowded, broader in front, 

 white, rarely becoming yellow. 



Var. rega'lis, twice as large. Stem stuffed, solid when young, as 

 much as 12 in. thick, becoming light-yellow within; the volva ter- 

 minates in 8 10 concentric squamoso-reflexed rows of scales. Pileus 

 very glutinous, bay-brown or the color of cooked liver. Gills yel- 

 lowish. 



Var. formosa, soft, fragile. Pileus at first lemon-yellow, with mealy, 

 lax, yellowish, easily-separating warts, often naked. Gills often becom- 

 ing yellow. A. formosa, with the warts rubbed off. 



Var. umbri'na, thinner and more slender. Stem hollow, often twist- 

 ed, bulb narrowed. PileilS at first umber, then livid, with the excep- 

 tion of the disk, which is dingy-brown. Gills at length remote. Stev. 



PileilS at first ovate or hemispherical, then broadly convex or nearly 

 plane, slightly viscid when young and moist, rough with numerous 



