THE DEADLY AMANITA SI 



spicuous and constant in Amanita muscarius (Plate 

 4), are not thus permanent in several other species 

 of Amanitae, notably the white -satin -capped Ama- 



nita vernus, Amanita phalloides, and 



Scales and Amanita Ccssarea, in which the frag- 



scurfy spots ments are deciduous ; and, secondly,, 



because the same general effect of 

 these warty scales is so clearly imitated in other 

 mushrooms which are distinctly edible, as in exam- 

 ples Plate 10 and Plate 16. It is to the volva or 

 cup, then, that we must devote our special attention 

 as the only safe and constant character. And this 

 leads me to the prominent and necessary considera- 

 tion of another common species of Amanita, men- 

 tioned above, in which even this cup is more or less 

 obscure. 



THE POISONOUS FLY- MUSHROOM 

 Agariciis (Amanita) muscarius 



This, one of the most strikingly beautiful of our 

 toadstools, is figured in Plate 4. Its brilliant cap of 

 yellow, orange, or even scarlet, studded with white 

 or grayish raised spots, can hardly be 

 A deceptive unfamiliar to even the least observant 

 Amanita country walker. Its favorite habitat is 

 the woods, and, in the writer's experi- 

 ence especially, beneath hemlocks and poplars, where 

 he has seen this species year after year in whole 

 companies, and in all stages shown in the plate at 

 the same time, from the globular young specimen 

 almost covered with its white warts just lifting its 

 head above the brown carpet to the fully expanded 



