AMANITA MUSCARIA. — VARIETIES OF FLY AMANITA. 
Class XXIY. CRYPTOGAMIA.— Order IV. FUNGI. 
Natural Order, FUNGI . T HE MUSHROOM TRIBE. 
Gen. Char. Pileus furnished with a stem and volva, and bearing on its inferior surface straight sporu- 
liferous lamellae. Stem either with a ring-like veil, or naked. 
Spec. Char. Margin of the pileus striated, shining, warty, rarely naked ; warts and lamellae white; 
volva vanishing, scaly; stipes bulbous. 
The pileus is from three to six inches in diameter, convex at first, striated at the margin, varying very 
much in colour, being mostly bright red, orange, or green, but sometimes liver-coloured, yellowish, or even 
whitish, and beset with downy, angular warts. The warts are white, or yellowish, prominent, pretty regular, 
scattered over the surface, but sometimes wanting. The lamellee are flat, adnate with the stipes, very 
I numerous, broad, and whitish. The flesh is thick, and white, partaking to a small depth of the colour of 
the pileus. The stipes is cylindrical, smooth, white, very straight, subsolid, from four to eight inches high, 
and bulbous at the base. The volva, according to Dr. Greville, is perfect only in extremely young plants, 
cracking immediately into pyramidal warts, which become less elevated, and more distinct, as the pileus 
expands, and generally leave a few traces upon the bulb, at the base of the stem. 
Withering believed the A. caesarea and xerampelina to be one, or merely varieties, of the same species. 
From this opinion, however, Dr. Greville dissents. From a mere verbal description of this Agaric, it is 
evident that its appearance must be rich in the extreme. The stipes is columnar, slightly tapering upwards, 
j about five inches high and half an inch in diameter, of a rich buff colour shaded with red; the pileus is 
| about twelve inches round, convex, and bossed in the centre, with the circumference bent down. The 
I upper surface is at first of a beautiful carmine, which changes after a time to a rich orange, and ultimately 
becomes buff; the hymenium is of a bright golden yellow, tending to orange at the extremities of the gills, 
i where they meet the red tunic of the pileus. 
Amanita nivalis, which Dr. Greville says is the most alpine fungus he is acquainted with, and which 
grows on the bleak summits of the Grampians, enlivening by its symmetry and extreme whiteness the few 
turfy spots that occur in those desert regions, is found also in Italy, according to De Candolle, who quotes 
I from Michelli, and says that it is eaten by the Tuscans, and by them called Fungo marzuolo, or dormiente. 
' Amanita ovoidea is also said to be delicious; and A. vaginata is fed upon by the poor in Muscovy: but 
I cases are on record in which it has proved poisonous. 
The Amanita imperialis has long been notorious for its intoxicating and poisonous properties. It has 
[ sometimes been eaten by mistake, and the results have proved fatal. Linnaeus tells us that in Denmark 
; the natives cut it in pieces, which they steep in milk, and it then proves as destructive to flies as arsenic ; 
hence it has received its present specific name, Muscaria. Dr. Johnston corroborates this fact, by stating 
| that he has observed flies which sip the dirty yellow liquor into which the Amanita dissolves die almost 
! immediately. Haller mentions the cases of six Lithuanians, who perished at one time by eating this 
Amanita. And Christison, among other instances, relates those of four French soldiers, who were killed, 
I and others who were much disordered, by a similar fatal repast. Orfila likewise records similar examples of 
its virulence, in one of which a whole family was poisoned, and although some were recovered by speedy 
remedies, two died. The Amanita is nevertheless employed by the Ostiacks of Siberia, the Kamtschatdales, 
and Koriacks, for the purpose of producing intoxication. These infatuated people “sometimes eat it dry, 
| sometimes immersed in a fermented liquor made with the epilobium, which they drink, notwithstanding 
the dreadful effects that inevitably follow. At first they are seized with convulsions in all their limbs, then 
with a raving, such as attends a burning fever ; a thousand phantoms, gay or gloomy, according to their 
constitutions, present themselves to their imaginations ; some dance, others are seized with unspeakable 
horrors. They personify this mushroom; and if its effects urge them to suicide, or any dreadful crime, 
they say they obey its commands. To fit themselves for premeditated assassinations, they take the Moucho- 
more , the Russian name of this Agaric ; and, such is the fascination of drunkenness in this country, that 
nothing can induce the natives to forbear this dreadful poison.” — [Pennant.) 
The most complete and satisfactory account of this fungus, and its extraordinary effects, will be found 
in a German essay, by Dr. Langsdorf, in Annalen der Wetter auischen Gesellsrchaft fur die gesammte 
Naturkunde. This essay has been quoted by Dr. Greville, in his treatise on the esculent Fungi of Great 
Britain, and from his translation the following are extracts. 
“The variety of Amanita muscaria, called Kamtschatica, is used by the inhabitants of the north-eastern 
parts of Asia in the same manner as wine, brandy, arrack, opium, &c. are by other nations. These fungi 
are found most plentifully about Wischna, Kamtschatka, and Mitkowe Derewna, and are very abundant in 
some seasons, and scarce in others. They are collected in the hottest months, and hung up by a string in 
the air to dry ; some dry of themselves on the ground, and are said to be far more narcotic than those 
artificially preserved. Small deep-coloured specimens, thickly covered with warts, are also said to be more 
; powerful than those of a larger size and paler colour. 
“One large or two small fungi, is a common dose to produce a pleasant intoxication for a whole day, 
' particularly if water be drank after it, which augments the narcotic effect. The desired effect comes jn from 
one to two hours after taking the fungus, in the same manner as from wine or spirits : cheerful emotions of 
