A REMARKABLE AMANITA? 
GEORGE F. ATKINSON 
(WITH EIGHT FIGURES) 
During the autumn of 1908 I received from Mrs. VircrIniA Gar- 
_ LAND Batten, of Brookdale, Santa Cruz Co., Cal., a number of 
_ Specimens of an Amanita which presents several remarkable pecul- 
 larities in its development and environic relations. | For several years 
_ Mrs. BALLEN has observed this Amanita and has made a careful field 
_ Study of the more salient features of its development. This account 
_ of the fungus is based on fresh specimens and photographs which she 
_has sent me, and upon her notes and descriptions, which show a 
temarkable appreciation on her part of the important morphological 
_ Characters, as well as of important features of development. 
This plant grows in the mountain forests of California. It is 
_ among the largest species of Amanita, the cap being 10 to 22°™ in 
_ diameter, one of the larger ones, according to Mrs. BALLEN, being 
: Sufficient for a meal. It thus rivals in size the royal Amanita of 
E Europe, which it surpasses in robustness, though not possessing its 
; Nich orange-yellow color, and not attaining the height of the larger 
_ Specimens of that species. It is interesting to note that the stocky 
character of this plant with its short stem is probably an expression 
: of One of its environic and seasonal relations. It occurs in the high 
4 Sierras and in the Coast Range. Probably the entire summer season 
: 1S needed for the growth and extension of the mycelium in the forest 
_ Mold, so that the huge fruit bodies are developed in late autumn and 
: early Spring. While we have as yet no information bearing on the 
€ of origin of the fundament of the fruit bodies, it is likely that 
: all of them are formed during the summer and late autumn, and that 
_ the second crop, which appears early in the spring, is composed of 
Plants which have lived through the winter in a partially developed 
| ondition. The autumn crop ceases about the last of December, 
_ While the spring crop begins about the middle of March. 
* Contribution from the Department of Botany, Cornell University, No. 135. 
283] [Botanical Gazette, vol. 48 
