A NEW POISONOUS MUSHROOM 



William A. Murrill 



A most interesting case of mushroom poisoning was recently 

 'brought to my attention by Dr. W. C. Deming, of Westchester, 

 who poisoned himself and the members of his family with a 

 small mushroom found growing in the grass at Morris Park. 

 This mushroom does not belong to the class usually considered 

 poisonous, and its properties have never before been tested. This 

 is only another argument in favor of not eating mushrooms of 

 any kind unless they are perfectly well known. The chances in 

 this case were about one in a thousand, but Dr. Deming happened 

 to get the one. 



On the very day that the poisoning occurred, I had noticed 

 two small mushrooms growing together in quantity on the lawn 

 in front of the museum building of the New York Botanical 

 Garden. These were carefully studied and the accompanying 

 illustration made of them. The two kinds brought in by Dr. 

 Deming from Morris Park proved to be the same that I had 

 collected and studied here. 



The non-poisonous kind, Panaeolus papilionaceus, is two of 

 three inches high and one-half to three-quarters of an inch broad, 

 with conical cap and perfectly smooth, smoky-brown upper sur- 

 face, the lower surface being brownish-black and somewhat 

 grayish-speckled. If the cap is removed and placed on a piece 

 of white paper under a tumbler, the spore-print is black. 



The poisonous kind, Inocybe infida, is slightly larger, with 

 semiorbicular cap surmounted by a prominent nipple, which is 

 dark reddish-brown, while the rest of the upper surface is light 

 tawny-brown. The upper surface also differs from that of the 

 non-poisonous kind in being silky-scaly and shining. The lower 

 surface differs in being much lighter, pale yellowish instead of 

 brownish-black, and the spore-print is about the color of oak 

 wood. Most of these differences may be seen in the illustra- 

 tion. 



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