This species is very common in pine and oak forests. The plant, as a whole, has a graceful aspect and grows singly or scattered through open places in the woods. It is somewhat fragile and easily broken. The cap in this species is usually a mouse-gray, sometimes slaty gray or brownish, generally umbonate in the center and distinctly striated on the margin. The stem is white, equal, and slender in proportion to the width of the cap, and sheathed quite far up with a loose white membranous wrapper. This sheath is so slightly attached to the base of the stem that it is often left in the ground if the plant is carelessly pulled. The gills are white, or whitish, free from the stem and rounded at the outer extremity. There is a white variety, (variety _alba_) A. _nivalis_, in which the whole plant is white, and a tawny variety (A. _fulva_ Schaeff.) in which the cap is a pale ochraceous yellow, with the gills and stem white or whitish. In the variety A. _livida_ or A. _spadicea_ Grev. the cap is brown, while the stem and gills are tinged a smoky brown. These are all edible and of fairly good flavor. Except in the absence of the ring upon the stem, the light varieties might be mistaken for small forms of the poisonous species Amanita _verna_ or of _phalloides_. Great caution should therefore be observed, in gathering for the table, to be sure of the species. [Illustration: Plate XV. Figs. 1 to 7. Ag. (Amanita) muscarius, Linn. (Amanita muscaria) "Fly Mushroom." Fig. 8. Ag. (Amanita) phalloides, Fries. Fig. 9. Ag. (Amanita) mappa Batsch. POISONOUS. T. Taylor, del.] PLATE XV. Figs. 1 to 7.--=Ag. (Amanita) muscarius= Linn. (=Amanita muscaria=). "_Fly Mushroom_," "_False Orange_." POISONOUS. Cap warty, margin striate; gills white, reaching the stem, and often forming decurrent lines upon it; stem white, stuffed, annulate, bulbous at the base, concentrically ridged or scaly at the base, and sometimes part way up, with fragments of the ruptured wrapper. Spores widely elliptical, white, .0003 to .0004 of an inch in length.