22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
Ulmaria rubra Hill. 
Balfour place near Aiden Lair, Essex co. July. 
The queen of the prairie has been introduced into our State from 
the West and is found in dooryards and flower gardens where it is 
cultivated for ornament. It sometimes escapes from cultivation - 
- or persists about the sites of old destroyed or abandoned dwell- 
ings. It is described in Gray’s Manual under the name S pi- 
raea lobata. 
D : 
REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS 
Agastache scrophulariaefolia (Willd.) Kuntze 
Roadside. Wells, Hamilton co. August. A showy form 
having purplish bracts and calyx lobes. It is sparingly pubescent 
and in this respect it approaches A. nepetoides, but it has 
the thicker spikes and more pointed calyx lobes of A. scro ph- 
ulariaefolia. . 
Amanita muscaria formosa (G. & R.) Fr. 
Several instances have been reported to me in which this variety 
of the fly amanita, a poisonous species, has been eaten without 
harm. In all these instances except one, the mushroom was eaten 
by those who were at the time ignorant or unsuspicious of its 
true relationship. In September, Mr A. P. Hitchcock of New 
Lebanon reported to me a case in which a sheep ventured to try 
the edible qualities of this mushroom. He says: 
While I was gathering a few specimens of boletus in the pas- 
tures one evening last week, my cosset buck sheep, which follows 
me about like a dog, watched my proceedings with close attention 
for a time. Then, having assured himself of what I was doing 
he walked to a small group of the fly amanita, which grows luxuri- 
antly in places in my fields, and proceeded to gobble down about 
a dozen fair sized specimens, eating the caps as greedily as he 
eats lump sugar from my hand. This was at least three days ago 
and perhaps more. He is still with us. and in no way worse for 
his indulgence. Does this mean that I have mistaken some other 
sort for the fly amanita or that what is food for a buck sheep may 
be poison for a man? The amanita in question had the orange 
yellow color and the bulbous stem of A. muscaria. 
In this as in all other cases of harmless eating of the fly amanita 
that have been reported to me the variety formosa is indicated. 
