Beardslee: Notes on Asheville Fungi 
89 
vernalis Gill., A. Amici Gill., and A. adnata W. Smith. The first 
three are French species, the last English. The feeling of many 
students is that these are all forms of one variable species. 
Boudier states in a letter that he considers A. vernalis and A. 
Amici, both of which he has studied, forms of A. junquillea. 
Mr. Rea, whose excellent knowledge of the English species is 
well known, has carefully observed A. adnata and finds that the 
characters which were relied upon in separating A. adnata are 
inconstant. He lists it as a synonym for Quelet’s species. It 
would seem that we need not trouble ourselves unduly in regard 
to this species. 
Our A. russuloides is abundant in the southern mountains, 
where it may be collected all through the summer. At Asheville, 
the form is a rather better A. adnata than the others. It has uni- 
formly no annulus, though farther to the north it seems to have 
one. I have carefully compared it with specimens from Boudier 
and have also submitted specimens and photographs to him and 
to Bresadola. Both agree in considering our plant A. junquillea. 
A comparison of the specimens leads to the same conclusion. 
Amanita cothurnata Atkinson will doubtless need further study 
and comparison before its status is satisfactorily determined. At 
Asheville, it is one of the most abundant species and also one of 
the most attractive. Whether it should be considered a form of 
A. pantherina Fries is a question which would be decided partly 
by our ideas of specific distinction. Bresadola, to whom I judge 
it was submitted, states that he considers it distinct in its smaller 
size, white color, and especially its globose spores. Like Murrill, 
I have never seen typical A. pantherina in the United States. I 
found it common in Sweden and always with the same dark 
pileus, with which the white warts contrasted finely. At no time 
did we observe a white specimen. In size, there does not appear 
to be much difference, though possibly the American plant is on 
the average smaller. My suspicions as to the validity of our 
species came from the discovery that the spores are not globose 
in the fresh plant. A curious change in the spores takes place as 
specimens are dried. The spores, which are at first ellipsoid, lose 
their cell contents and become filled with a large globule as 
described by Atkinson, and at the same time become inflated and 
