e, or whitish, free from the stem and rounded at the outer
extremity.

There is a white variety, (variety _alba_) A. _nivalis_, in which the
whole plant is white, and a tawny variety (A. _fulva_ Schaeff.) in which
the cap is a pale ochraceous yellow, with the gills and stem white or
whitish. In the variety A. _livida_ or A. _spadicea_ Grev. the cap is
brown, while the stem and gills are tinged a smoky brown.

These are all edible and of fairly good flavor. Except in the absence of
the ring upon the stem, the light varieties might be mistaken for small
forms of the poisonous species Amanita _verna_ or of _phalloides_. Great
caution should therefore be observed, in gathering for the table, to be
sure of the species.

[Illustration: Plate XV.
Figs. 1 to 7. Ag. (Amanita) muscarius, Linn. (Amanita muscaria)
"Fly Mushroom."
Fig. 8. Ag. (Amanita) phalloides, Fries.
Fig. 9. Ag. (Amanita) mappa Batsch.
POISONOUS.
T. Taylor, del.]

PLATE XV.

Figs. 1 to 7.--=Ag. (Amanita) muscarius= Linn. (=Amanita muscaria=).
"_Fly Mushroom_," "_False Orange_."

POISONOUS.

Cap warty, margin striate; gills white, reaching the stem, and often
forming decurrent lines upon it; stem white, stuffed, annulate, bulbous
at the base, concentrically ridged or scaly at the base, and sometimes
part way up, with fragments of the ruptured wrapper. Spores widely
elliptical, white, .0003 to .0004 of an inch in length.

The plants of this species vary very much in size and in the color of
the cap. The latter is sometimes a bright scarlet and again it is orange
color, more frequently ochraceous yellow, fading to a very pale yellow
tint. In the variety _albus_ it is white. The stem is stuffed with webby
fibrils and varies very much in thickness: sometimes in young specimens
it is very stout, with a thick ovate bulb reaching well up towards the
cap, and again it is comparatively slender and nearly equal from the cap
down to a very slight bulb at the base. The very young plant is
completely enveloped in a white or yellowish egg-shaped wrapper or
volva, which, being friable, generally breaks up into scales, forming
warts upon the upper surface of the cap. When the plant is young and
moist the cap is slightly sticky. A thickish white veil extends from the
stem to the inner margin of the cap. This breaks away with the growth
and expansion of the plant and falls in lax folds, forming a deflexed
ring rou