esults by those who gathered it.

The distinction between this most poisonous Amanita and the common field
mushroom is well marked. In the common mushroom the _gills_ are _pink,
becoming dark brown_, the _spores purplish brown_, and the whole
mushroom is stout and short stemmed, the stem being shorter than the
diameter of the cap, and having no volva, or wrapper at its base. In the
species A. _phalloides_ the _gills_ are _persistently white_ and the
bulb is distinct and broad at the base, the white cup-shaped wrapper
sheathing the base of the stem like the calyx of a flower. The _Smooth
white lepiota_ shows neither volva nor trace of one, and has other
distinct characteristics which distinguish it from A. _phalloides_. See
page 14, No. 4 of this series.

The specimen figured in Plate XV grew in Maryland, where it is quite
common.

PLATE XV.

FIG. 9.--=Ag. (Amanita) mappa (Amanita mappa)= Linn., =Amanita
citrina=, =A. virosa.=

POISONOUS.

Cap at first convex, then expanded, dry, without a separable cuticle,
not warty but showing white, yellowish, or brownish scales or patches on
its upper surface; gills white, adnexed; flesh white, sometimes slightly
yellowish under the skin; stem stuffed, then hollow, cylindrical,
yellowish white, nearly smooth, with a distinctly bulbous base; volva
white or brownish. Odor pleasant. Spores spheroidal. The cap in this
species is somewhat variable in color, but those having a white cap are
most common. The plant is not so tall as those of the species
_phalloides_. It is solitary in habit, and is found usually in open
woods.

Curtis and Lowerby figure _mappa_ and _phalloides_ under the same name.

[Illustration: Plate XVI.
Fig. 1. Ag. (Amanita) vernus, Bull. (Amanita verna.) "Spring
Mushroom."
Fig. 2. Represents section of mature plant.
Fig. 3. Spores; Fig. 4. Young plant.
POISONOUS.
T. Taylor, del.]

PLATE XVI.

FIGS. 1 to 4.--=Ag. (Amanita) vernus= Bull. =(Amanita verna)= Linn.,
=Amanita bulbosa=, =Ag. solitarius.= "_Vernal Mushroom_," "_Spring
Mushroom_," etc.

POISONOUS.

Cap at first ovate, then expanded, becoming at length slightly
depressed, viscid, white; margin smooth; flesh white; gills white, free;
stem white, equal, stuffed or hollow, easily splitting, floccose, with
bulbous base; volva white, closely embracing the stem, but free from it
at the margin; ring reflexed; spores glob