238 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Helvetia esculenta owes its toxicty to helvellic acid C 19 H 20 O ? . Very few deaths 

 have been reported in recent years. 



According to Robert, Amanita muscaria contains, besides cholin and 

 muscarin, a third alkaloid, fungus atropin, (pilz-atropin) ; this alkaloid, like 

 ordinary atropin, neutralizes to a greater or less extent the muscarin. The 

 amount of pilz-atropin present varies, as other constituents of mushrooms vary, 

 with varying conditions of soil, climate, etc., and it may be that in those 

 localities where the Amanita muscaria is used for food the conditions are 

 favorable for a large production of pilz-atropin, which neutralizes the muscarin, 

 thus making the plant harmless. Be this as it may, Amanita muscaria is deadly 

 as ordinarily found. It is undoubtedly used quite largely as food in parts of 

 France and Russia, and it has been eaten repeatedly in certain localities in these 

 countries without harm. 



Ford suggests, on clinical grounds, that it may not be the only poison present 

 because even when this drug is completely neutralized by its physiological anti- 

 dote, atropin, the patient, who has eaten Amanita muscaria, sometimes dies.* 



The alkaloid muscarin, a tasteless alkaline substance with a tobacco-like 

 odor, causes the contraction of pupils; amanitin C B H 15 NO 9 is an isomer of 

 cholin, and yields muscarin with nitric acid and cetraric acid, C 20 H lg O 19 

 Muscarin has been obtained synthetically from cholin. It does not, however, 

 produce quite the same symptoms. 



Amanita Frostiana, Peck 



Pileus convex to expanded, bright orange or yellow, warty, sometimes 

 nearly or quite smooth, striate on the margin ; lamellae 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 in diameter. From the character of the poisons it is quite dis- 

 tinct from the A. muscaria. 



Distribution. New York to North Carolina. 



Poisonous properties. Professors Peck and Atkinson both list it as poison- 

 ous. Ford found an hemolysin of low grade intensity. Heated extracts were 

 without action upon animals. Schmiedeberg found a poison. 



Amanita phalloides. Fr. Death Cup 



Pileus smooth, fleshy, viscid, greenish, brown or olive to amber; cap 3-5 

 inches broad, frequently free from remnant of volva; lamellae white; stem 

 3-6 inches long, annulate; spores globose, white. Prof. Atkinson says: "The 

 presence or absence of these scales on the cap depends entirely on the way in 

 which the volva ruptures. When there is a clean rupture at the apex, the 

 pileus is free from scales, but if portions of the apex of the volva are torn 

 away they are apt to remain on the cap. 



Dr. Farlow gives the following excellent description of 'this fungus : 



It is rather common and grows singly in woods and on the borders of fields, rarely ap- 

 pearing in lawns, and is not preeminently an inhabitant of grassy pastures, like the mush- 

 room. It prefers a damper and less sandy soil than that chosen by the fly agaric. The 

 pileus is often a shining white, but may be of any shade, from a pale dull yellow to olive, 

 and when wet is more slimy than the mushroom or the fly agaric. It has no distinct scales 

 and only occasionally a few membranous patched on the pileus. The gills and stalk are 



* Sci. 30: 97-108 



