arch for additional evidence of the unity of these
forms, or of their definite segregation.

[Illustration: FIGURE 59.--Amanita verna, white (natural size).
Copyright.]

Since the _Amanita phalloides_ occurs usually in woods, or along borders
of woods, there is little danger of confounding it with edible mushrooms
collected in lawns distant from the woods, and in open fields. However,
it does occur in lawns bordering on woods, and in the summer of 1899 I
found several of the white forms of this species in a lawn distant from
the woods. This should cause beginners and those not thoroughly familiar
with the appearance of the plant to be extremely cautious against eating
mushrooms simply because they were not collected in or near the woods.
Furthermore, sometimes the white form of the deadly amanita possesses a
faint tinge of pink in the gills, which might lead the novice to mistake
it for the common mushroom. The bulb of the deadly amanita is usually
inserted quite deep in the soil or leaf mold, and specimens are often
picked leaving the very important character of the volva in the ground,
and then the plant might easily be taken for the common mushroom, or
more likely for the smooth lepiota, _Lepiota naucina_, which is entirely
white, the gills only in age showing a faint pink tinge. It is very
important, therefore, that, until one has such familiarity with these
plants that they are easily recognized in the absence of some of these
characters, the stem should be carefully dug from the soil. In the case
of the specimens of the deadly amanita growing in the lawn on the campus
of Cornell University, the stems were sunk to three to four inches in
the quite hard ground.

=Amanita verna= Bull. =Deadly Poisonous.=--The _Amanita verna_ is by
some considered as only a white form of the _Amanita phalloides_. It is
of a pure white color, and this in addition to its very poisonous
property has led to its designation as the "destroying angel."

[Illustration: FIGURE 60.--Amanita verna, "buttons," cap bursting
through the volva; left hand plant in section (natural size).
Copyright.]

The =pileus= is smooth and viscid when moist; the gills free; the =stem=
stuffed or hollow in age; the =annulus= forms a broad collar, and the
=volva= is split at the apex, and being quite stout, the free limb is
prominent, and it hugs more or less closely to the base of the stem.
Figure 59 represents the form of the plant which Gillet recognizes as