Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  1896.  / 
Mushrooms  and  Fungi. 
653 
A  piece  as  big  as  a  pea  will  kill  a  human  being  as  dead  as  a  door- 
nail. Charles  Dickens  says :  "  The  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  is  in 
the  simile  " — or  I  would  not  use  it. 
There  is  no  charm,  no  test,  no  plan  of  cooking — which  will  detect 
or  destroy  the  poisonous  alkaloid,  or  announce  danger  in  a  single 
variety  of  the  Amanita.  In  letting  the  whole  genus  alone,  or  in 
botanic  knowledge  of  its  members,  is  the  only  safety. 
I  will  describe  them.  When  quite  young  they  are  egg-shaped 
and  entirely  enclosed  within  a  white  sheath.  The  top  of  this  sheath 
is  pushed  upward  through  the  ground  by  rapid  cell-formation  within 
it.  It  is  knob-shaped.  In  this  stage  it  much  resembles  the  com- 
mon mushroom,  and  in  mistaking  it  for  the  latter  is  the  cause  of  so 
many  deaths. 
This  knob  increases  in  size,  is  thrust  upward  by  the  stem  beneath 
it,  ruptures  the  sheath,  begins  to  expand,  carrying  patches  of  it  on 
what  now  becomes  the  top  or  cap  of  the  growth.  These  patches 
either  dry  and  remain  there  or  are  evanescent — disappearing.  The 
stem  elongates ;  the  cap  expands  to  hemispherical  shape.  Reach- 
ing from  the  edge  of  the  cap  to  the  stem,  and  fastened  to  it,  is  a 
white,  thin,  kid-like  membrane,  called  a  veil.  Its  object  is  to  shield 
the  seed-bearing  surface  which  it  covers  from  the  attacks  of  enemies. 
As  the  cap  expands  from  the  hemispherical  to  umbrella  shape,  it 
stretches  this  veil  until  it  breaks  away  from  the  edge  or  circumfer- 
ence. A  fringe  of  it  often  adheres  to  the  cap ;  the  body  of  it  col- 
lapses about  the  stem  and  either  remains  there,  pendulous,  in  the 
form  of  a  ring,  or,  later,  if  the  veil  was  very  thin,  as  simply  a  stain. 
The  plant  is  now  fully  grown.  It  has  scabs,  or  warts,  or  stains 
upon  the  otherwise  smooth,  kid-like  cap,  unless  the  remnants  of 
the  sheath  are  evanescent.  The  cap  may  be  snow-white,  green- 
ish, yellowish,  orange,  purple,  brown — almost  any  color.  Under- 
neath the  cap,  which  has  pure  white  flesh,  without  unpleasant  taste, 
but  smelling  faintly  of  polecat,  are  (with  one  exception,  where  they 
are  yellow)  white  gills,  radiating  from,  but  not  quite  reaching  the 
point  at  which  the  stem  enters  the  cap.  The  cap  is  easily  sepa- 
rable from  the  stem.  If  it  is  laid  gills  downward  upon  a  sheet 
of  paper,  and  a  tumbler  placed  over  it  to  prevent  drying,  it  will 
shed  thousands  of  white  spores.  The  stem  is  generally  long,  round, 
slightly  expanded  at  the  top,  but  gradually  thickens  downward 
until  it  reaches  the  sheath  from  which  it  sprung ;  here  it  is  more 
