POISONOUS FUNGI AND OTHER SPORE-BEARING PLANTS 



35 



Death Cup (Amanita phalloides, Venenarius phalloides}. This hand- 

 some, solitary toadstool is found in woods, or along the borders of woods, 

 very rarely indeed in open places. The cap, or pileus, is convex companu- 



late and later expanded from three , . , 



to fifteen centimeters broad. The 

 upper surface smooth, slightly 

 viscid when moist and decorated 

 with fragments of the universal 

 veil. Its color is pure white to 

 yellow, yellowish-green, green, gray, 

 brown or blackish with a usually 

 entire margin, rarely striate. The 

 taste is not objectionable but the 

 odor is disagreeable. The lamellae 

 are broad and white, rounded at the 

 base, free or adnexed to the stipe. 

 The spores are globose, hyaline 

 7-1 o//.. The floccose-scaly stipe is 

 bulbous at the base and stuffed, or 

 hollow. The superior annulus is 

 thin, membranous and ample. The 

 basal volva is white attached to 

 the base of the large, rounded bulb 

 (Fig. 13). 



Poisonous Substances. A ma- 

 nila phalloides owes its toxic prop- 

 erties to at least two poisonous 

 constituents. One is a powerfully 

 hemolytic agent which is destroyed 

 by heating thirty minutes at 65, 

 acting directly upon the red blood 

 corpuscles, even, if removed from 

 the serum. Ford and his asso- 



FIG. 12. Contraction of a frog's heart : 

 A, normal; B, three minutes after the 

 application of one drop of a 10 per cent, 

 solution of muscarin; C, at the point in- 

 dicated by the star two drops of a 10 per 

 cent, solution of muscarin were applied. 

 Two minutes after the end of this curve 

 the heart commenced to contract again 

 with a slow and feeble beat. D, three 

 minutes after the application of a weak 

 solution of atropin sulphate in normal 

 tap-water saline. It will be seen that 

 the rhythmic contractions are restored 

 and the contraction and relaxation be- 

 come so complete that the excursion of 

 the lever is greater than in Curve A , but 

 the frequency is less. The time is 

 marked in seconds. (Adapted from 

 Pembrey, M. S. and Phillips, C. D. F. 

 The Physiological Action of Drugs, 1907, 

 Figs. 52 and 53, pp. 76-7?-) 



ciates have shown that this hemolysin is a glucoside, and this 

 belongs to the saponin group, yielding on hydrolysis pentose and vola- 

 tile bases, and yet capable of acting as an antigen, since actively 

 antihemolytic sera can be produced by immunizing animals such as rab- 

 bits. Such rabbits can be immunized to extracts of Amanita phalloides 



