Jui-T 23, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



107 



together in their toxicological properties. 

 Ama7iita rubescens Persoon from the collec- 

 tion of Mr. Morris at Stow and a yellow 

 form of Amanita ruhescens from the Bos- 

 ton Mj'cological Club were examined by 

 the routine method. The rubescens from 

 Mr. Morris's collection was devoid of 

 hemolysin and toxin alike, while the yel- 

 low form contained an active hemolysin 

 but no toxin. A more careful study of 

 the species rubescens must be made before 

 a positive conclusion can be drawn con- 

 cerning its properties. Four of the rarei* 

 species of Amanita may be described to- 

 gether because of their similarity, namely, 

 Amariita strobiliformis Vittadini found by 

 Mr. Morris in Ellis, Amanita clilorinosma 

 Peck from the collection of the Boston 

 Mycological Club, Arnanita radicata Peek 

 found by Mr. Morris in Ellis and Amanita 

 porphyria Albertini and Sweinitz from 

 the same place. 



These four species w'ere alike devoid of 

 hemolysins, but contained in small quanti- 

 ties a poison which is practically identical 

 with the amanita-toxin. It is resistant to 

 heat, soluble in alcohol and kills animals 

 slowl}% but with many of the lesions found 

 in phalloides poisoning. These fungi 

 should all be considered "deadly poison- 

 ous," and future experience may even 

 show that hemolysins are also present in 

 other forms of the same species, in which 

 case they would be practically identical 

 with the "deadly amanita." 



Two specimens of Amunita muscaria 

 Linnseus were given me, one found by Mr. 

 Morris and the other by Mr. Davis in Stow. 

 The properties of these forms were identi- 

 cal with those of Amanita muscaria ob- 

 tained for me six years ago by Dr. W. H. 

 Lewis, in Woods Holl, Ma.ss. The species 

 thus seems very constant in its character- 

 istics. All three samples contained mus- 

 carine, the aqueous and alcoholic extracts 



killing animals in two hours with the usual 

 symptoms. The alcoholic extract con- 

 tained in addition a peculiar hemolysin, 

 the properties of which are still under in- 

 vestigation, while in the aqueous extract 

 evaporated to a small bulk and precipi- 

 tated by ethyl alcohol I found an ag- 

 glutinin such as has been previously 

 described for Amanita solitaria. The 

 development of our methods of analyzing 

 fungi enabled me to isolate this substance, 

 which turned out to be a glueoside, but not 

 one containing pentose. Although agglu- 

 tinins are not uncommon in various plants, 

 this is, I believe, the first time that one has 

 been isolated by chemical methods, and the 

 first time that a glueoside has been found 

 to exert this action upon blood corpuscles. 



Amanita frostiana Peck, three specimens 

 of which were found by Mr. Morris in 

 Stow and one at Cohasset were individu- 

 ally examined. They contained in all in- 

 stances an hemolysin of low grade inten- 

 sity, but the heated extracts were without 

 action upon animals. Neither amanita^ 

 toxin nor muscarine could be demon- 

 strated. The absence of resistant poisons 

 from this species is particularly interest- 

 ing since Amanita frostiana was first de- 

 scribed by Peck as a minor variety of 

 Amanita muscaria, and is put down by 

 Atkinson^" as "poisonous." The speci- 

 mens sent me were certainly devoid of 

 muscarine, a fact which suggests that the 

 species may not be so closely related to 

 Amanita muscaria as is indicated by its 

 botanical characters. Further observa- 

 tions must be made with other forms of 

 Amanita frostiana to determine whether it 

 is uniformly free from the poison de- 

 scribed by Schmiedeberg. Finally three 

 specimens of Amanita 7-ussuloides Peck, 

 one found at Natick by Mr. Morris, another 

 at Stow by Mr. Morris, and a third at 



"Atkinson, "Mushrooms," 1903, p. 54. 



