never
found intergrading color forms, and have not yet satisfied myself as to
whether or not the two should be entitled to specific rank.

Some of the other species of _Amanitopsis_ found in this country are
=A. nivalis= Grev., an entirely white plant regarded by some as only a
white form of =A. vaginata=. Another white plant is =A. volvata= Pk.,
which has elliptical spores, and is striate on the margin instead of
sulcate.

[Illustration: FIGURE 78.--Amanitopsis farinosa. Cap grayish (natural
size). Copyright.]

=Amanitopsis farinosa= Schw.--The mealy agaric, or powdery amanita, is a
pretty little species. It was first collected and described from North
Carolina by de Schweinitz (Synop. fung. Car. No. 552, 1822), and the
specimens illustrated in Fig. 78 were collected by me at Blowing Rock,
N. C., during September, 1899. Peck has given in the 33rd Report N. Y.
State Mus., p. 49, an excellent description of the plant, though it
often exceeds somewhat the height given by him. It ranges from 5--8 or
10 cm. high, the cap from 2--3 cm. broad, and the stem 3--6 mm. in
thickness.

The =pileus= is from subglobose to convex and expanded, becoming nearly
plane or even depressed by the elevation of the margin in old specimens.
The color is gray or grayish brown, or mouse colored. The pileus is
thin, and deeply striate on the margin, covered with a grayish floccose,
powdery or mealy substance, the remnant of the evanescent volva. This
substance is denser at the center and is easily rubbed off. The =gills=
are white and free from the stem. The =spores= are subglobose and
ovate to elliptical, 6--7 mu long. The =stem= is cylindrical, even,
hollow or stuffed, whitish or gray and very slightly enlarged at the
base into a small rounded bulb which is quite constant and
characteristic, and at first is covered on its upper margin by the
floccose matter from the volva.

[Illustration: PLATE 24, FIGURE 79.--Lepiota naucina. Entirely white
(natural size).]

At Blowing Rock the plants occurred in sandy soil by roadsides or in
open woods. In habit it resembles strikingly forms of _Amanitopsis
vaginata_, but the volva is entirely different (Fig. 78). Although _A.
vaginata_ was common in the same locality, I searched in vain for
intermediate forms which I thought might be found. Sometimes the
floccose matter would cling together more or less, and portions of it
remained as patches on the lower part of the stem, while depauperate
forms o