The white form is common in this country, and so is the olive or umber form. The yellow form is rarer. Sometimes there is only a tinge of yellow at the center of the white pileus, while in other cases a large part of the pileus may be yellow, a deeper shade usually on the center. The green form is probably more common in Europe than in this country. The olive form varies considerably also in the depth of the color, usually darker on the center and fading out to light olive or gray, or whitish, on the margin. In other cases the entire pileus may be dark olive or umber color. The =gills= in all the forms are white, and free from the stem or only joined by a narrow line. The stem is stuffed when young, but in age is nearly or quite hollow. It is cylindrical, 6--20 cm. long × 6--12 mm. in thickness. In the larger specimens the bulb is quite prominent and abrupt, while in the smaller specimens it is not always proportionally so large. The =stem= is usually smooth and the color is white, except in the dark forms, when it is dingy or partakes more or less of the color of the pileus, though much lighter in shade. There is a tendency in these forms to a discoloration of the stem where handled or bruised, and this should caution one in comparing such forms with the edible _A. rubescens_. [Illustration: FIGURE 57.--Amanita phalloides, volva circumscissile, cap scaly, limb of volva not prominent, cap dark, scales white (natural size). Copyright.] Perhaps no part of the plant is more variable than the outer veil or volva. Where the volva is quite thick and stout it usually splits at the apex, and there is a prominent free limb, as shown in Fig. 55. Sometimes thin portions of the volva are caught, and remain on the surface of the pileus. But when the volva is thinner and of a looser texture, it splits transversely about the middle, circumscissile, and all or a large part of the upper half of the volva then clings to the cap, and is separated into patches. Between this and the former condition there seem to be all gradations. Some of these are shown in Fig. 56, which is from a photograph of dark olive and umber forms, from plants collected in the Blue Ridge mountains, at Blowing Rock, N. C., during September, 1899. In the very young plant the volva split transversely (in a circumscissile fashion) quite clearly, and the free limb is quite short and distant from the stem on the margin of the saucer-like bulb. In the large and fully expanded plant at the center, the volva ruptured irregularly at the apex, and portions of the thin upper half remain as patches on the cap while the larger part remains as the free limb, attached at the margin of the broad saucer-shaped bulb, and collapsed up against the base of the stem. [Illustration: FIGURE 58.--Amanita phalloides, volva circumscissile, concave bulb margined by definite short limb of volva; upper part of volva has disappeared from cap; cap whitish, tinged with brown.]