REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 1899 



839 



-very minute apothecia which are scarcely perceptible except on close 

 inspection. By reason o^ this character they are referable to variety 

 brachytes Ach. This and the two preceding species are rare in 

 our state. 



Amanita onusta Howe 



Sandy and gravelly soil. Claryville, Sullivan co. August. Our 

 specimens are smaller than the typical form and do not rigidly agree 

 in all other respects with the description of the species, but the 

 essential characters correspond so well that we have no doubt that 

 the specimens belong to this species. The discrepancies are easily 

 explained by the variability of the species. The original description 

 was evidently derived from large and mature specimens in which the 

 annulus had disappeared. In our specimens there is present in 

 young plants a very white, flocculent or webby and mealy veil, which 

 ruptures by the expansion of the pileus and adheres partly to the 

 even margin of the pileus and partly to the top of the stem, on which 

 it forms a slight and sometimes fragmentary annulus, which often 

 disappears entirely with age. Its presence indicates that the plant 

 belongs to the genus Amanita and not to Amanitopsis, in 

 which some writers have placed it. 



In our specimens the pileus is 1.5 to 2.5 inches broad, and is at 

 first grayish brown or mouse color, thickly set with small, dark brown 

 or blackish warts, but these sometimes disappear to some extent with 

 age and the pileus itself often fades or becomes whitish and slightly 

 striate on the margin. The lamellae are white, close and slightly 

 attached to the stem. The stem is 2 to 3 inches long, 3 to 5 lines 

 thick, solid or slightly spongy in the center, colored like the pileus 

 or paler and commonly slightly thickened at the base but not truly 

 bulbous. It has a root-like prolongation, which penetrates the 

 ground to a depth about equal to the length of the exposed part. 

 The surface is mealy or flocculent above and squamulose below, or 

 in some cases wholly flocculent mealy. The spores are .00035 to 

 .0005 of an inch long, .00024 broad. The species is apparently allied 

 to A. s o 1 i t a r i a, but it has no campanulate margined bulb at the 

 base of the stem. It is also near A . polypyramis, but that is 

 described as having a pure white, shining, areolate pileus with thick, 

 pyramidal, central warts. 



