Mycology

I am interested in your reply as I have read in a few mushroom books that ~Amanita~ in Europe were a traditionally eaten species, after par-boiling. Apparently it mitigated the nasty bits and made them palatable... but the books also state (probably to cover their butts legally) that none of this had ever been verified as safe for the North-American equivalents.

Over on the west coast of BC the yellow and red ~Amanita~ can grow to large sizes, and I've been wanting to find out if they're actually edible (or, yes, perhaps usable for their psychaedelic properties). All the books I have say, if anything, that they'll make you extremely ill (not kill you, but sweating, puking and sh*tting yourself for days).