The toadstools containing deadly poisons are thought to be confined to one genus of the gilled kind—Amanita, and to Helvella esculenta, now Gyromitra esculenta, to which are charged fatal results. The poisonous qualities of Gyromitra esculenta are not proven. Recent testings of this species prove it to be harmless and of good quality. By far the greater number of species contained in Amanita are notable for their tender substance and delicious flavor. By their stately beauty and unusual attractiveness both the poisonous and harmless kinds are seductive. _Any toadstool with white or lemon-yellow gills, casting white spores when laid—gills downward—upon a sheet of paper, having remnants of a fugitive skin in the shape of scabs or warts upon the upper surface of its cap, with a veil or ring, or remnants or stains of one, having at the base of its stem—in the ground—a loose, skin-like sheath surrounding it, or remnants of one, should never be eaten until the collector is thoroughly conversant with the technicalities of every such species, or has been taught by one whose authority is well known, that it is a harmless species._ This rule purposely includes the renowned Amanita Cæsaria, everywhere written as luscious. I regard it as the most dangerous of toadstools, because of its close resemblance to its sister plant—the Amanita muscaria—which is deadly. In the description of these species, other forcible reasons are given. Another deadly species—the Amanita phalloides—is frequently mistaken by the inexperienced for the common mushroom. Safety lies in the strict observance of two rules: Never eat a toadstool found in the woods or shady places, believing it to be the common mushroom. Never eat a white- or yellow-gilled toadstool in the same belief. The common mushroom does not grow in the woods, and its gills are at first pink, then purplish-brown or black. If through carelessness, or by accident, a poisonous Amanita has been eaten, and sickness results, take an emetic at once, and send for a physician with instructions to bring hypodermic syringe and atropine sulphate. The dose is 1⁄180 of a grain, and doses should be continued heroically until the 1⁄20 of a grain is administered, or until, in the physician’s opinion, a proper quantity has been injected. Where the victim is critically ill the 1⁄20 of a grain may be administered. In every case of toadstool poisoning, the physician must be guided by the symptoms exhibited. Professor W.S. Carter, by numerous exhaustive trials upon animals, has proved that atropine, while valuable as against the _first_, is not an antidote for the _late_ effects of the greater toadstool poisons. (See his chapter on toadstool poisons, especially prepared for this work.)