In such cases there are two veils, or a double veil, each attached to the margin of the pileus, the upper one ascending over the edges of the gills and attached above on the stem, while the lower one descends and is attached below as it is being ripped up from a second layer of the stem. Figures 59–61 are from plants collected at Blowing Rock, N. C., in September, 1899.
Amanita virosa Fr. Deadly Poisonous.—This plant also by some is regarded as only a form of Amanita phalloides. It is a pure white plant and the pileus is viscid as in the A. verna and A. phalloides. The volva splits at the apex as in A. verna, but the veil is very fragile and torn into shreds as the pileus expands, portions of it clinging to the margin of the cap as well as to the stem, as shown in Fig. [62]. The stem is also adorned with soft floccose scales. Gillet further states that the pileus is conic to campanulate, not becoming convex as in A. verna and A. phalloides.
The variability presented in the character of the veil and in the shape of the pileus suggests, as some believe, that all these are but forms of a single variable species. On the other hand, we need a more careful and extended field study of these variations. Doubtless different interpretations of the specific limits by different students will lead some to recognize several species where others would recognize but one. Since species are not distinct creations there may be tolerably good grounds for both of these views.
Figure 62.—Amanita virosa, white (natural size). Copyright.
Amanita floccocephala Atkinson. Probably Poisonous.—This species occurs in woods and groves at Ithaca during the autumn. The plants are medium sized, 6–8 cm. high, the cap 3–6 cm. broad, and the stems 4–6 mm. in thickness.
The pileus is hemispherical to convex, and expanded, smooth, whitish, with a tinge of straw color, and covered with torn, thin floccose patches of the upper half of the circumscissile volva. The gills are white and adnexed. The spores are globose, 7–10 µ. The stem is cylindrical or slightly tapering above, hollow or stuffed, floccose scaly and abruptly bulbous below. The annulus is superior, that is, near the upper end of the stem, membranaceous, thin, sometimes tearing, as in A. virosa. The volva is circumscissile, the margin of the bulb not being clear cut and prominent, because there is much refuse matter and soil interwoven with the lower portion of the volva. The bulb closely resembles those in Cooke's figure (Illustrations, 4) of A. mappa. Figure [63] shows these characters well.
