MUSHROOMS AND OTHER COMMON FUNGI. 7 



AMANITA. 



The genus Amanita is easily recognized among the white-spored 

 agarics in typical species or early stages by the presence of a volva 

 and a veil. Young plants are completely enveloped by the volva, 

 and the manner in which it ruptures varies according to the species. 

 The volva may persist in the form of. a basal cup, as rings or scales 

 on a bulblike base, or it may be friable and evanescent. The cap is 

 fleshy, convex, then expanded. The gills are free from the stem, 

 which is different in substance from the cap and readily separable 

 from it. 



This is a most interesting genus, on account of the great beauty of 

 color and texture of many of its species and the fact that it contains 

 the most poisonous of all mushrooms. While there are some edible 

 species in the genus, the safest policy for the amateur is to avoid all 

 mushrooms of the genus Amanita. 



Amanita caesarea. Caesar's mushroom. 



Cap ovate to hemispherical, smooth, with prominently striate margin, reddish or 

 orange becoming yellow; gills free, yellow; stem cylindrical, only slightly enlarged 

 at the base, attenuated upward, flocculose, scaly below the annulus, smooth above; 

 ring membranaceous, large, attached from its upper margin; stem and ring nor- 

 mally orange or yellowish, in small or depauperate specimens sometimes white; flesh 

 white, yellow under the skin, and usually yellow next to the gills; volva large, dis- 

 tinct, white, saclike. 



Cap 2\ to 4 or more inches broad; stem 3 to 5 inches long. (PI. I, fig. 1.) 

 This species is variously known as Caesar's agaric, royal agaric, orange Amanita, 

 etc. It has been highly esteemed as an article of diet since the time of the early 

 Greeks. It is particularly abundant during rainy weather and may occur solitary, 

 several together, or in definite rings. Although this species is edible, great caution 

 should always be used in order not to confound it with Amanita frostiana, which is 

 poisonous. The points of difference of these two species are conveniently compared 

 as follows : 



Species. 



Cap. 



Gills. 



Stem. 



Volva. 





Orange, smooth, oc- 

 casionally with a 

 few fragments of 

 volva as patches. 



Yellow, smooth or 

 with yellowish 

 scales. 



Yellow 



Yellow 





Amanita frostiana. 



Yellow or tinged 

 with yellow. 



White or yellow . . . 



breaking up into 

 soft, fluffy masses. 



Yellow, sometimes 

 breaking up into 

 fluffy, yellow frag- 

 ments. 



Amanita muscaria. The fly Amanita. (Very poisonous.) 



Cap globose, convex, and at length flattened, at maturity margin sometimes slightly 

 striate; flesh, white, sometimes yellow under the pellicle; remnants of the volva 

 persisting as scattered, floccose, or rather compact scales, color subject to great varia- 

 ation, ranging from yellow to orange, or blood red, gills white or yellowish, free but 

 reaching the stem; stem cylindrical, at first stuffed, later hollow, upper part torn 

 into loose scales, bulb prominent, generally marked by concentric scales forming 

 irregular ridges; ring typically apical, lacerated, lax, large. 



