Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
Figure 10. A close-up view of Amanita muscaria. Poisonous.
Photo by Frank H. Kauf ert.
low saucer of water, houseflies soon begin to cluster around, eager
for a tipple. It is their last. In a few moments, seemingly stimulated
by this too potent elixir, they take off and buzz about in frenzied
loops and circles until sudden death overtakes them, often in full
flight, and they tumble quite lifeless to the floor. But flies are not
the only creatures susceptible to the peculiar attractions of this
fungus, for in some regions of Siberia it was once, and probably
still is, commonly used as an intoxicant by man, nonlethal doses of
it producing a temporarily glorious binge. The after-effects are
less joyous, involving rather severe aches and pains, but these do
not seem to have deterred its use. Eaten in quantity, of course, it
is fatal.
This is one of the largest, most colorful, and most imposing of
gill fungi. Specimens more than a foot high with caps 10 inches
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