BRIEFER ARTICLES 
A NEW POISONOUS MUSHROOM 
(WITH TWO FIGURES) 
During last August I received from Dr. O. E. FiscHER, Detroit, Michi- 
gan, a few living plants of a species of Tricholoma, which he reports as 
causing several severe cases of poisoning. The specimens were suff- 
ciently well-preserved for study and diagnosis, also for a photograph, and 
for casting spores for a photomicrograph. The plants are medium size, 
white in color with dull clay-colored tinge and stains in places. The 
plants are moist but not viscid, with the pileus minutely scaly but sub- 
tomentose over the center. The scales possess the darker color and under 
the hand lens some of them appear nearly black, but because of their 
minute size the dark color is not evident to the eye. The stems are sub- 
bulbous, the shape of the bulb being peculiar and resembling that of 
Lepiota lenticularis, which in side view is supposed to suggest the shape of 
a biconvex lens. The taste of the plants is mild, and no particular.odor 
was observed in those received. The plants appear to be near to T7ri- 
choloma pallidum Pk. from Worcester, Mass., but differ in a number of par- 
ticulars, as will be seen by a comparison of the diagnoses. 
Before giving the technical diagnosis I quote the following from Dr. 
FIscHER’s letter: 
I am sending you a set of agarics of unusual interest and importance, for they 
are the ones that made seven people very ill iri Rochester, Mich., on August 21. 
Violent and hemorrhagic vomiting, diarrhoea, sweating, and some cardiac dis- 
turbance were the symptoms, lasting several hours and coming on one hour after 
eating even of minute quantities. Some of the women are still suffering from 
intestinal disturbance. None that ate escaped; none died. I have spent con- 
siderable time and energy in taking two of the victims to the exact spot where 
they picked the offenders and got the cause of the trouble. It is a white- 
spored agaric, growing in open grassy woods on a leafy base, in clusters ~ 
- groups. I should greatly appreciate a certain identification of this agaric, the mo 
* So since it looks, tastes, and smells inviting, and was ‘‘O.K.’d” by a member of our 
- club. 
Tricholoma venenatum Atkinson, n. sp.—Plants 4-8°™ high, pileus 
4-7°™ broad, stem 1-1.5°™ thick, plants white with dull clay-colored 
tinge and stains; pileus moist not viscid, convex-expanded, subumbonate, 
461] [Botanical Gazette, vol. 46 
