A. spre´ta Pk.—spreta, hated. (Plate [VI], fig. 1, p. 6.) Pileus subovate, then convex or expanded, smooth or adorned with a few fragments of the volva, substriate on the margin, whitish or pale-brown. Gills close, reaching the stem, white. Stem equal, smooth, annulate, stuffed or hollow, whitish, finely striate at the top from the decurrent lines of the lamellæ, not bulbous at the base, but the volva rather large, loose, subochreate. Spores elliptical, generally with a single large nucleus, 10–13×6–8µ.
Plant 4–6 in. high. Pileus 3–5 in. broad. Stem 4–6 lines thick.
Ground in open places. Sandlake and Gansevoort. August. Peck, 32d Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
This is a dangerous species, because containing a deadly poison and resembling the most common forms of Amanitopsis, therefore likely to be mistaken for them. Specimens sent by me to Professor Peck were identified as his species. I add my own description.
Pileus oval, broadly umbonate, date-brown toward and on umbo, soft, dry, smooth, more or less sulcate on edge. Flesh white, thin, except at center. Stem tapers rapidly above ring and at base, white-reddish-brown toward middle, narrows toward volva from which it is almost free at the base, hollow, furfuraceous above ring. Gills white, crowded, free. Ring white, thin, persistent, but at times hard to distinguish because clinging to stem. Volva free, fitting close, upper margin thin, lower part quite thick, making stem appear bulbous, which it is not. White forms occur.
Not as virulent as A. phalloides, but like it in its POISONOUS effects. It differs from Amanitopsis in having a ring.
Grows in woods and on wood-margins.
Angora woods, West Philadelphia. On ground in mixed woods, open and grassy places in wood and wood-margins. August to September. McIlvaine.
A. recuti´ta Fr.—having a fresh or new skin. Pileus convex then plane, dry, smooth, frequently bearing fragments of the volva, margin nearly even. Stem stuffed then hollow, attenuated, silky, volva circumscissile, becoming obliterated, margin closely pressed to stem; ring distant, white. Gills striate-decurrent.
In pine woods. Common.