State Bot.
A white variety, with the pileus thickly studded with sharp warts,
occurs in Albany Rural Cemetery. July. _Peck_, 24th Rep.
Var. _al´ba_ Pk. It also occurs on Long Island in two forms, the normal
one and a smaller one, in which the warts of the pileus are evanescent
or wanting. Not unfrequently it makes a close approach to white forms of
A. pantherina, in having the upper part of the bulb uniformly margined
by the remains of the definitely circumscissile volva, but this margin
is more acute than in that species. _Peck_, 46th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
=Spores= spheroid-ellipsoid, 10–12x8–9µ _K._; 6x9µ, _W.G.S._;
elliptical, 8–10x6–8µ _Peck_.
“At Cincinnati, yellow A. muscaria are all we find.” _Lloyd._
Reported from most of the states. At Mt. Gretna I found it in great
quantity, and frequently three or four tightly crowded together. Many
pounds of it were sent to Professor Chittenden, Sheffield Laboratory,
Yale University. Near Haddonfield, N.J., large patches annually grow
under pines, gorgeous in their rich orange-red caps, usually scaly, with
at times lemon-yellow in the same clusters, smooth as A. Cæsarea. It
grows from July until after hard frosts.
It is undoubtedly _poisonous_ to a high degree. Its juices in minute
quantity, carefully and scientifically injected into the circulation of
etherized cats, kill in less than a minute. A raw piece of the cap, the
size of a hazel nut, affects me sensibly if taken on an empty stomach.
Dizziness, nausea, exaggeration of vision and pallor result from it. The
pulse quickens and is full, and a dreaded pressure affects the
breathing. I have not noticed change in the pupil of the eye. Nicotine
from smoking a pipe with me abates the symptoms, which entirely
disappear in two hours, leaving as reminiscence a torturing, dull,
skull-pervading headache. If, as is asserted on good authority, the
Siberians use it as an intoxicant, they certainly suffer the accustomed
penalty. It is possible that persons may, in a degree, become immune to
its poison, as they do to arsenic, strychnia, opium, nicotine, or it may
be that a portion of the poison is extracted by boiling. It is, however,
extremely dangerous to rely upon extracting by any means the poison of
the Amanita, and to eat the residue. Acetic acid or vinegar does _not_
destroy the poison; it dissolves it to an extent and extracts it, and
becomes as poisonous as the plant itself. There is no means of telling
how much of the poison remains in the plant after such treatment. The
safe plan is to eat, only, of toadstools which do not contain any poison
to extract.
One redeeming virtue, alone, rests with A. muscaria—it kills flies.
=A. Frost´iana= Pk.—in honor of Charles C. Frost. POISONOUS. (Plate VI,
fig. 5, p. 6.) =Pileus= convex or expanded, bright-orange or yellow,
warty, sometimes nearly or quite smooth, striate on the margin. =Gills=
free, white or slightly tinged with yellow. =Stem= white or yellow,
stuffed, bearing a slight, sometimes evanescent ring, bulbous at the
base, the bulb _slightly margined_ by the volva. =Spores= _globose_,
8–10µ in diameter.
=Plant= 2–3 in. high. =Pileus= 1–2 in. broad. =Stem= about 2 lines
thick. June to October.
This appears like a very small form of the Fly Agaric, to which, as var.
minor, it was formerly referred. The only decided characters for
distinguishing it are its small size and globose spores. Our plant
sometimes grows in company with A. muscaria, but it seems to prefer more
dense woods, especially mixed or hemlock woods. It is generally very
regular and beautiful and has the stem quite often of a yellow color,
and the bulb margined above with a collar-like ring. _Peck_, 33d Rep.
N.Y. State Bot.
West Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, _McIlvaine_.
A. Frostiana is found well over the land. It is frequent in shady woods
and seems to favor ground under the prevailing tree—oak, chestnut, pine,
hemlock, whichever it may be. From the many hundreds I have seen, I
think it more likely to be mistaken by the novice for A. Cæsarea than A.
muscaria, because of its often yellow gills and stem. It is much smaller
and thinner than either. In the states I have found it, it is darker
than described, being a rich reddish-orange or scarlet. The partial veil
or ring is very evanescent but often found upon the stem as a yellow,
floccose remnant. The stain of the ring is always noticeable. The volva
is seldom found entire. It, too, is evanescent, but, like the veil, is
found yellow and fluffy, adhering to the fingers when touched.
It is probable that its highly colored cap has caused it to be gathered
by the careless collector of bright-capped Russulæ, and that thus R.
emetica got its bad name. Examine carefully any toadstool resembling it.
The Russulæ have neither ring nor volva.
=A. excel´sa= Fr.—_excelsus_, tall. POISONOUS. =Pileus= 4–5 in. broad,
_brownish-gray_, darker in the center, _fleshy_, soft, globose, then
plane, _pellicle thin_, but viscous, and in reality separable in wet
weather, then the surface is often _wrinkled-papillose_, or in a
peculiar manner hollowed and pitted, sprinkled with angular, unequal,
whitish-gray, easily separating warts, the remains of the friable volva;
margin at first even, but when properly developed manifestly striate,
even furrowed. =Flesh= soft, white throughout, unchangeable. =Stem= 4–6
in. long, 1 in. thick, at first stuffed, almost solid, but at length
hollow, globose-depressed at the base, attenuated upward from the bulb,
covered, sometimes as far as the ring, sometimes only on the lower part
with _dense, squarrose, concentric scales_ (from the epidermis of the
stem being torn), striate at the apex. =Ring= superior, large,
separating-free or at length torn. =Gills= quite _free, rounded_ (not
decurrent on the stem in the form of lines), very ventricose, ½ in. and
more broad, shining white.
The _bulb when young_ is _somewhat marginate_, but by no means
separable, the margin proper, like that of A. muscaria, is marked with
scales, buried in the soil, somewhat rooting, beneath the margin marked
here and there with a concentric furrow. The shorter gills intermixed
are more numerous than is usual among Amanitæ. There is a smaller
variety, with the margin more frequently striate and the stem stuffed,
then hollow. _Fries._
Solitary, in woods, chiefly under beech. _Stevenson._
=Spores= 6x9µ _W.G.S._; 8–9×5–6µ _Massee_.
North Carolina, _Schweinitz_, _Curtis_; South Carolina, _Ravenel_;
California, _Harkness and Moore_; Massachusetts, _Frost_, _Andrews_;
Minnesota, _Johnson_; Rhode Island, _Olney_.
=A. pantheri´na= De C.—spotted like a panther. Doubtful. =Pileus=
commonly olivaceous-umber when young, fleshy, convex then flattened or
somewhat depressed, with a _sticky pellicle_, which is at first thick
and olivaceous dingy-brown, then thinned out, almost disappearing and
livid, the disk only becoming brownish; _margin evidently striate_; the
fragments of the volva divided into small, equal, white, regularly
arranged, moderately persistent warts. =Flesh= _wholly white_, never
yellow beneath the pellicle. =Stem= 3–4 in. long, ½ in. thick, at first
stuffed then hollow with spider-web fibrils within, equal or attenuated
upward, slightly firm and sometimes scaly downward, _greaved_ at the
base by the separable _volva which has an entire and obtuse margin_.
=Ring= more or less distant, adhering obliquely, white, rarely superior.
=Gills= free, reaching the stem, broader in front, 3–4 lines broad,
shining white.
It is readily distinguished from A. muscaria, var. umbrina, by the white
flesh never becoming yellow beneath the pellicle. Variable in size and
color, which, however, is never red or yellow, and in the position of
the ring.
In woods and pastures. _Stevenson._
=Spores= 7–8×4–5µ _K._; 6–10µ _B._; 8×4µ _W.G.S._; 7.6×4.8µ _Morgan_.
Not poisonous, _W.G.S._; not edible, _Roze_; poisonous, _Leuba_.
North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Iowa, New York. _Peck._
=A. Ravenel´ii= B. and C.—in honor of Henry W. Ravenel. =Pileus= 4 in.
across, convex, broken up into distinct areas, each of which is raised
into an acute, rigid, pyramidal wart. =Stem= 3 in. high, bulbous.
=Volva= thick, warty, somewhat lobed. =Ring= deflexed.
South Carolina, June, _H.W. Ravenel_; a very fine species allied to A.
strobiliformis, Vitt. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1859; Alabama,
_Atkinson_ (Ll. Volvæ).
Properties not stated.
=A. russuloi´des= Pk.—resembling a Russula. =Pileus= at first ovate,
then expanded or convex, rough with a few superficial warts, or entirely
smooth, viscid when moist, widely striate-tuberculate on the margin,
pale-yellow or straw color. =Gills= close, free, narrowed toward the
stem, white. =Stem= firm, smooth, stuffed, annulate, equal or slightly
tapering upward, bulbous; annulus thin, soon vanishing. =Volva= fragile,
subappressed. =Spores= broadly elliptical, 10×8µ.
=Plant= 2–3 in. high. =Pileus= 1.5–2 in. broad. =Stem= 3–5 lines thick.
Grassy ground in open woods. Greenbush. June.
This species is remarkable for the thin striate-tuberculate margin of
the pileus, which causes it to resemble some species of Russula. _Peck_,
25th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Qualities not stated.
Massachusetts, _Francis_.
[Illustration: Grouped by F.D. Briscoe—Studies by C. McIlvaine.
PLATE VIII.]
FIG. PAGE.
1. AMANITA CHLORINOSMA, 25
2. AMANITA RUBESCENS AND 21
SECTION,
3. AMANITA STROBILIFORMIS, 19
=A. strobilifor´mis= Vitt.—_strobilis_, a pine-cone, from the shape of
the warts. (Plate VIII, fig. 3, p. 18.) =Cap= 3–10 in. across, convex or
nearly plane, white or cinereous, sometimes yellow on the disk, rough
with angular, mostly persistent warts which sometimes fall away and
leave the pileus nearly smooth; generally whitish, sometimes tinged with
brown; the margin even and extending a little beyond the lamellæ.
=Gills= free, rounded behind. =Veil= large and portions sometimes adhere
to margin of cap. =Stem= 3–8 in. long, up to 1¼ in. thick, equal or
slightly tapering upward, solid, floccose-scaly, white, bulbous, the
bulb very large, sometimes weighing a pound, margined above and
furnished with one or two concentric furrows, somewhat pointed below,
firmly and deeply imbedded in the earth, floccose-mealy when young.
=Spores= elliptical, 13–15×8–10µ _Peck_.
Open woods and borders. June to October.
Edible. _W.G. Smith_, _Curtis_, _Peck_.
This is among the best of species. Its size, solidity, flavor are
marked. I have found specimens weighing a pound and a half. It grows
singly, but when one is found several are apt to be neighbors. When
young, the cap is but a small knob upon a beet or top-shaped base, which
is largely under ground. It cuts like a soft turnip, and has a strong,
pungent, unmistakable odor, like chloride of lime, which entirely
disappears in cooking. As the plant develops the bulb decreases in size.
On all the many specimens the author has seen and eaten, the scabs are
light brown and reddish-brown.
=A. solita´ria= Bull.—growing alone. =Pileus= convex or plane, warty,
white or whitish, even on the margin. =Gills= reaching the stem, white
or slightly tinged with cream color. =Stem= at first mealy or scaly,
equal, solid, white, bulbous, the bulb scaly or mealy, narrowed below
into a root-like prolongation. =Ring= lacerated, often adhering in
fragments to the margin of the pileus and gills. =Spores=
elliptical-oblong, 8–13×6.5µ.
=Plant= 4–8 in. high. =Pileus= 3–6 in. broad. =Stem= 4–6 lines thick.
_Peck_, 33d Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Solitary in woods and open places. July to October.
Georgia, _H.N. Starnes_; Indiana, _H.I. Miller_; West Virginia, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, _McIlvaine_.
Edible. _Curtis_, _H.N. Starnes_, Philadelphia Myc. Club.
In many localities I find it quite plentiful, and it is so reported from
Georgia. Southern and middle New Jersey woods abound with it, and at Mt.
Gretna, Pa., it is always present in its growing months.
The cap is sometimes tinged with brown as are the angular, erect warts
which are generally numerous, but often falling off or few and
scattered. The flesh is white and smells like chloride of lime, but not
nearly so strong as A. strobiliformis. The volva is broken up into
floccose scales which cling to bulb and lower part of stem. These scales
may be white and mealy or brownish. The entire fungus has a fluffy
exterior, which is easily removed by rubbing. The annulus is torn, a
part often adhering to the margin of the pileus and the gills. This and
the long, tapering, rooting bulb are marked characteristics. The bulb is
brittle. It is difficult to get the fungus from the ground entire.
Stem and cap are juicy, tender, mild in flavor, wholesome. It is not
equal in flavor to A. rubescens, but is more delicate.
By many its properties have been stated as poisonous, doubtful.
Quantities of it have been eaten by myself and friends. Hypodermic
injection of its juices into the blood circulation of live animals prove
it perfectly harmless.
=A. can´dida Pk.=—shining white. =Pileus= thin, broadly convex or nearly
plane, verrucose with numerous small, erect, angular or pyramidal,
easily separable warts, often becoming smooth with age, white, even on
the margin. =Flesh= white. =Gills= rather narrow, close, reaching to the
stem, white. =Stem= solid, bulbous, floccose-squamose, white, the
annulus attached to the top of the stem, becoming pendent and often
disappearing with age, floccose-squamose on the lower surface, striate
on the upper, the bulb rather large, ovate, squamose, not margined,
tapering above into the stem and rounded or merely abruptly pointed
below. =Spores= elliptical, 10–13×8µ.
=Pileus= 3–6 in. broad. =Stem= 2.5–5 in. long, 5–8 lines thick, the bulb
1–1.5 in. thick in the dried specimens.
This is a fine large species related to A. solitaria, but differing from
it in the character of its bulb and of its annulus. The bulb is not
marginate nor imbricately squamose. Its scales are small and numerous.
Nor is it clearly radicating, though sometimes it has a slight abrupt
point or myceloid-agglomerated mass of soil at its base. The veil or
annulus is large and well developed, but it is apt to fall away and
disappear with age. Its attachment at the very top of the stem brings it
closely in contact with the lamellæ of the young plant and the
striations of its upper surface appear to be due to the pressure of the
edges of these upon it. It separates readily from the margin of the
pileus and is not lacerated. In the mature plant the warts have
generally disappeared from the pileus and sometimes its margin is curved
upward _Peck_, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. 24, No. 3.
Woods. Auburn, N.Y., Alabama, _U. and E._; Pennsylvania, West Virginia,
New Jersey, August to October, _McIlvaine_.
A dozen or more specimens were found in oak woods near Philadelphia, and
carefully tested. Their edible qualities were found to be precisely the
same as A. solitaria.
*** _Whole volva friable, etc._
=A. rubes´cens= Pers.—_rubesco_, to become red. (Plate VIII, fig. 2, p.
18. Plate XII, fig. 4, p. 32.) =Pileus= about 4 in. broad,
dingy-reddish, becoming pale flesh-color, tan, scarcely pure, fleshy,
convex, then plane, obtuse, moist but _not glutinous_ in rainy weather
and opaque when dry, covered with unequal, soft, mealy, whitish,
easily-separating warts, which are smaller, harder and more closely
adherent in dry weather; margin even and, when old, slightly striate
only in wet weather. =Flesh= commonly soft, white when fresh, _reddening
when broken_. =Stem= 4–5 in. long, as much as 1 in. thick, stuffed,
somewhat solid, though soft within, conico-attenuated from the thickened
base, reddish-_scaled_, becoming red-white, and without a trace of a
distinct volva at the base. =Ring= superior, large, membranaceous, soft,
striate and white within. =Gills= reaching the stem in an attenuated
manner, forming decurrent lines upon it, thin, crowded, soft, as much as
½ in. broad, shining white.
Very changeable, but readily distinguished from all others of the same
group _by the flesh being reddish when broken_; the stem and pileus are
commonly spotted-red when wounded. In dry weather it is firmer, flesh
reddening more slowly, warts minute. Odor scarcely any. There is a
remarkable variety _circinata_, pileus becoming plane, umber-brown,
warts adnate, crowded, roundish. A. circinatus Schum. _Stevenson._
=Spores= spheroid-ellipsoid, 7–8×6µ _K._; 8×6µ _W.G.S._; 7–9×6–8µ _B._;
elliptical, 8–9µ long. _Peck._
Not reported west of the Mississippi river.
Oak woods, borders and open places. July to September. Indiana, _H.I.
Miller_; West Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania,
_McIlvaine_.
It is quite common, often growing in large patches. Recent authors agree
upon the edibility and deliciousness of this species. The author knows
it to be one of the most plentiful, useful and delicious, after several
years of pleasant experience with it.
In July, 1899, at Mt. Gretna, I found, growing from the ground
gregariously, a singular fungoid growth from 2–5 in. high; cap
hemispherical, 1 in. in diameter, tightly fitting a solid stem of nearly
the diameter of the cap. The whole was watery white, and evidently
affected by a parasite. It was edible. September 1st Professor Peck
wrote to me: “I think I have found the identity of the diseased Agaric,
of which you sent me samples some time ago. I mean the one affected by
_Hypomyces inæqualis_ Pk. The host is Amanita rubescens, at least
sometimes, and probably always.”
The plant is very heavy for its size. The lack of a volva, the dingy
color and reddish stains distinctly separate this from any poisonous
Amanita.
=A. spis´sa= Fr.—compact, dense;—of the warts. =Pileus= umber, sooty or
gray, fleshy, somewhat compact, convexo-plane, obtuse, smooth, even, but
_marked with small, ash-colored, angular, adnate_ warts; margin even,
but often torn into fibers. =Flesh= _firm, white, quite unchangeable_.
=Stem= 2–3 in. long, as much as 1 in. thick, _solid, turnip-shaped at
the base_, somewhat rooting with a globoso-depressed not marginate bulb,
curt, firm, shining white, at length _squamulose with concentric
cracks_. =Ring= superior, large. =Gills= reaching the stem, _slightly
striato-decurrent_, broad, crowded, shining white. _Fries._
=Spores= 14µ _W.G.S._; subglobose, 8–10µ _C.B.P._; 6µ _W.P._; rather
pear-shaped, 9–10×6µ _Massee_.
=Cap= 2–3 in. across. =Stem= 2½-3 in. long, up to ¾ in. thick.
New Jersey, oak woods, August and September. _McIlvaine._
A. spissa has been reported from but few localities. It is rare in the
latitude of Philadelphia. Half a dozen specimens have been found in
neighboring New Jersey.
Taste and smell strong, but when cooked the dish is savory and not
unlike one of A. rubescens.
=A. as´pera= Fr.—_asper_, rough. =Pileus= 2–3 in. across. =Flesh= rather
thick at the disk, whitish, white or reddish with tints of livid or
gray, _reddish or brownish under the cuticle_; convex then plane, margin
thin and even, rough with firmly adnate, minute, closely crowded,
angular warts, reddish-brown or livid-brownish, not pure white,
unchangeable. =Gills= free and rounded behind, not striately decurrent,
ventricose, white. =Stem= stuffed, striate above the ring, short at
first, ovate, then elongating to 2–3 in., attenuated upward from a
wrinkled bulb, squamulose, white without and within. =Ring= superior,
entire.
=Spores= 8×6µ _Massee_; 8×6–7µ _W.G.S._
The flesh of stem and bulb when eaten by insects is reddish, the bulb
when old is a reddish-brown. The large ring and stem become red when
touched. In these particulars it resembles A. rubescens. In smell it is
somewhat strong, not unlike A. strobiliformis, but not nearly so
pungent.
Cooked it is of excellent quality and flavor. I have eaten it since
1885.
=A. abrup´ta= Pk.—abrupt, of the bulb. =Pileus= thin, broadly convex or
nearly plane, covered with small angular or pyramidal, erect, somewhat
evanescent warts, white, slightly striate on the margin. =Flesh= white.
=Gills= moderately close, reaching the stem and sometimes terminating in
slightly decurrent lines upon it, white. =Stem= slender, glabrous,
solid, bulbous, white, the bulb abrupt, subglobose, often coated below
by the white persistent mycelium, the ring membranous, persistent.
=Spores= broadly elliptical or subglobose, 8–10×6–8µ.
=Pileus= 2–4 in. broad. =Stem= 2.5–4 in. long, 3–4 lines thick.
The chief distinguishing mark of this species is the abrupt, nearly
globose, bulbous base of the stem. This is somewhat flattened above and
is sometimes longitudinally split on the sides. The small warts of the
pileus are easily separable, and in mature specimens they have often
wholly or partly disappeared. The remains of the volva are not present
on the bulb in mature dried specimens, which indicates that the species
should be placed in the same group with A. rubescens, A. spissa, etc.
The latter species have the bulb of the stem similar to that of our
plant, but the color of the pileus and other characters easily separate
it. _Peck_, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. 24, No. 3.
Alabama, _Underwood_; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, _McIlvaine_. July to
September.
This species is edible and quite equal in quality to A. rubescens. Great
care should be exercised in distinguishing it.
=A. nit´ida= Fr.—_niteo_, to shine. =Pileus= when flattened 4 in. broad,
whitish, fleshy, _somewhat compact_, at first hemispherical, wrapped up,
the _thick volva_ forming a floccose crust, then _broken up into thick,
remarkably angular, adhering warts, which become brownish_, dry,
shining, without a glutinous pellicle, margin always even. =Flesh=
_white, quite unchangeable_. =Stem= 3 in. long, 1 in. thick, solid,
_firm_, conico-attenuated, _with a bulb-shaped base, squamulose_, white.
=Ring= superior, thin, torn, slightly striate, white, villous beneath,
at length disappearing. =Gills= _free_, crowded, _very broad_, as much
as ½ in., ventricose, shining white. _Fries._
Menands. Albany county. Our plant is more slender than the typical form,
and has smaller but more numerous warts, but in other respects it
exhibits the characters of this species. _Peck_, 43d Rep. N.Y. State
Bot.
California, _H. and M._; Maryland. Common in nearly every woods in
Maryland. _Banning._
From its likeness to poisonous species it should be suspected.
=A. prairiic´ola= Pk—_prairie, colo_, to inhabit. =Pileus= thin, convex,
slightly verrucose, white, more or less tinged with yellow, even on the
margin. =Flesh= white. =Gills= rather broad, subdistant, reaching the
stem, white. =Stem= equal or slightly tapering upward, somewhat squamose
toward the base, white or whitish, the annulus persistent. =Spores=
large, broadly elliptical, 12–14µ long, 7–9µ broad.
=Pileus= 1.5–3 in. broad. =Stem= 2–2.5 in. long, 2–4 lines thick.
Bare ground on open prairies. Kansas. September. _E. Bartholomew._
This species belongs to the same tribe as A. abrupta. The only evidence
of the presence of a volva shown by the dried specimens is found in a
few inconspicuous, but separable warts on the pileus. There is no well
marked bulb to the stem and no evidence remains of a volva at its base.
_Peck_, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. 24, No. 3.
Reported from Kansas only. Qualities unknown.