NATURAL HISTORY, TORONTO REGION 
seem to be not more than two or three species which 
are likely to be taken for edible mushrooms but are 
poisonous. There are several more or less hurtful 
species which by their peculiar appearance or dis- 
agreeable taste warn off or offer no temptation to the 
experimenter. The Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) 
and Amanita phallotdes (including all its varieties, 
and Amanita verna among them) are, so far as I 
have discovered in the Toronto district, the only 
forms which are dangerous, and of these Amanita. 
muscaria raises a warning signal by its bright orange 
or yellow-orange colour, and is naturally avoided as 
a poisonous “ toadstool.” Both these species are 
extremely common in woody places near Toronto 
towards the end of August or during the first two 
weeks of September. The variety of Amanita phal- 
loides, which has a brownish pileus, has probably 
been frequently mistaken by those who have no know- 
ledge of the subject for the common field mushroom, 
with unfortunate and often fatal result; but any one 
who has even a slight acquaintance with the botanical 
points of difference could soon without difficulty dis- 
tinguish the one from the other. There is, however, 
some danger, it seems to me, that an inaccurate begin- 
ner in the study of fungi may from insufficiently 
careful examination mistake the white varieties of 
Amanita phalloides for Lepiota naucinoides, where 
they are together in the collection basket, or where 
from some accidental cause the one has trespassed 
on the domain of the other. Young specimens, too, 
164 
