This is one of the most deadly of all British fungi, and generally grows in fir woods; the white milk is singularly acrid and corrosive, which is perhaps its best distinguishing mark. It bears some resemblance to fig. 26, Edible Sheet, but the milk of the _L. volemum_ is mild, and changes colour to dark brown when exposed to the action of the air; whilst in _L. rufus_ it remains white, and the milk is highly pungent. =Fly Mushroom.= Fig. 13. (_Agaricus_ [_Amanita_] _muscarius._) 3. Few fungi can exceed this well-known species in beauty. It is somewhat local, and loves birch woods, where it sometimes makes the very ground almost scarlet with its profuse growth. Sometimes the top is deep yellow or orange, but it is usually brilliant scarlet; if the top skin is stripped off, the flesh just beneath is seen to be bright yellow, and the rest of the flesh white. It is allied to fig. 1, Edible Sheet, but the flesh of the latter is not yellow under the skin; and _A. rubescens turns reddish_ in every part as soon as bruised or broken. =Poisonous Forest Mushroom.= Fig. 14. (_Agaricus_ [_Entoloma_] _sinuatus._) 212. Without doubt, this is a very poisonous plant, for I once cooked a very small piece of a specimen for luncheon, and was very nearly poisoned to death thereby. I did not eat a twentieth part of the specimen gathered—I am sure not so much as a quarter of an ounce—and the taste was by no means disagreeable. But mark the result. (It must be borne in mind, too, that though I fell so dangerously ill, I never till the last moment _suspected the fungus_. Such a confirmed toadstool-eater was I, that I laid my symptoms to anything but the true cause.) About a quarter of an hour after luncheon _I left home_, and was immediately overtaken by a strange nervous, gloomy, low-spirited feeling quite new to me. Soon a severe headache added its charms to my feelings, and then swimming of the brain commenced, with violent pains in the stomach. I had now great difficulty to keep upon my legs at all; my senses all appeared leaving me, and every object appeared to be moving with _death-like stillness_ from side to side, up and down, or round and round.