SOME EDIBLE AND POISONOUS FUNGI. 457 



whether it seems to come directly from the ground, or whether the 

 base is bulbous and sheathed with a membranous bag or scales. If 

 it has a sheath or scales it can not be the common mushroom. Fur- 

 thermore, it must not be forgotten that the mushroom never grows on 

 trees or fallen trunks, but in open, grassy ijastures. If a collector 

 finds a fungus having the points here mentioned, the chance of his 

 being injured by eating it is next to nothing, for there is only one 

 species at all answering the description whicli is to be avoided, and 

 that is very rare indeed, and has a taste so disagreeable that no one 

 would wish to eat it, while the taste of the mushroom is pleasant. 



POISONOUS SPECIES RESEMBLING THE COMMON MUSHROOM. 



Inasmuch as most cases of poisoning are due to mistaking some 

 injurious species for the common mushroom, it will be best before 

 passing to the other edible species related to the mushroom to refer 

 to two of the most common poisonous forms which have been eaten hj 

 mistake for the Agaricus campestris, viz, Amanita. phalloides, the 

 deadl}^ agaric, and Amanita muscaria, the fly agaric. Of the two, the 

 former is the more dangerous and the latter the more common. 



THE FLY AGARIC. 



The fly agaric {Amanita muscaria, PI. XXII), so called because 

 decoctions of it are used for killing flies, is in most places, at least in 

 the northern and eastern parts of the country, a common species — 

 often a good deal more abundant than the common mushroom. It is 

 found during the summer along roadsides, on the borders of fields, 

 and especially in groves of coniferous trees. It prefers a poor soil, of 

 gravelly or sandy character, and occurs only exceptionally in the 

 grassy pastures preferred by the dommon mushroom. It grows singly 

 and not in groups, and attains a large size, being one of the most 

 striking toadstools. It differs from the common mushroom in having 

 gills which are always white, never pink or purple, and in having a 

 hollow stem which is bulbous at the base and clothed with irregular, 

 f ringy scales on all the lower part. The pileus varies in color from a 

 brilliant yellow to orange and a deep red, the yellow and orange being 

 more frequent than the red. The surface is polished and has scat- 

 tered over it a larger or smaller number of prominent, angular, warty 

 scales, which can be easily scraped off. The gills and stalk are white, 

 and there is a large, membranous collar, which hangs down from the 

 upper part of the stem. The general appearance shown on PI. XXII, 

 together with the color of the pileus and gills noted above, are such 

 that it is dilficult to conceive how anyone who has ever seen a com- 

 mon mushroom or read a description of one could mistake the fly 

 agaric for the niushroom. Nevertheless, in the writer's experience, 

 no fungus is so often collected by mistake on the supi^osition that it 



