us species and is very
widely distributed in this country, as well as in other parts of the
world. In well developed forms there should be no difficulty in
distinguishing it from the common mushroom by even a novice. Nor should
there be difficulty in distinguishing it from the royal agaric, or
Caesar's agaric (_Amanita caesarea_), by one who has become reasonably
familiar with the characters and appearance of the two. But small and
depauperate specimens of the two species run so nearly together in form,
color, and surface characters, that it becomes a matter of some
difficulty for even an expert to distinguish them.

[Illustration: FIGURE 54.--Amanita muscaria. View of upper side of cap
(natural size). Colors as in Fig. 53. Copyright.]

Figures 52--54 are from plants (No. 2065 C. U. herbarium) collected in
an open woods near Ithaca. For the poisonous property of the plant see
Chapter XX.

=Amanita frostiana= Pk. =Poisonous.=--According to Dr. Peck, who
published the first description of this plant, it grows in company with
_Amanita muscaria_, but seems to prefer more dense woods, especially
mixed or hemlock woods, and occurs from June to October. The plant is
5--8 cm. high, the caps 2--5 cm. broad, and the stems 3--6 mm. in
thickness.

The =pileus= is "convex to expanded, bright orange or yellow, warty,
sometimes nearly or quite smooth, striate on the margin; =lamellae=
white or tinged with yellow; =stem= white or yellowish, stuffed, bearing
a slight, sometimes evanescent annulus, bulbous at the base, the bulb
_slightly margined_ by the volva; spores globose," 7.5--10 mu in
diameter. He notes that it appears like a small form of _A. muscaria_,
to which it was first referred as _var. minor_,--"The only characters
for distinguishing it are its small size and its globose spores." It is
near _A. muscaria var. puella_ Pers.

I have several times found this plant in the Adirondack mountains, N.
Y., and Ithaca, and also at Blowing Rock, N. C. The volva is often
yellowish, so that the warts on the pileus are also yellow, and
sometimes the only remnants of the volva on the base of the stem are
yellow or orange particles. The annulus is also frequently yellow. In
our plants, which seem to be typical, the spores are nearly globose,
varying to oval, and with the minute point where the spore was attached
to the sterigma at the smaller end, the spores usually being finely
granular, 6--9 mu in diameter, and rarely varying towa