350 AGARICINI. 



Coprinus. ** Atramentarii. Somewhat ringed (but not with a volva], 



4. C. atramentarius Fr. Pileus lurid-fuliginous, but becom- 

 ing hoary with adpressed silky lustre, slightly fleshy, ovate, ob- 

 tuse, wholly longitudinally and deeply silicate and ribbed, soft to 

 the touch, repand-unequal at the margin, squamulose on the disc, 

 slightly adpressedly-silky at the sides. Stem at first ventricose, 

 fusiform, attenuated shortly downwards, for a greater distance 

 upwards, with angular furrows, a little longer than the pileus ; 

 then elongato-attenuated upwards, 20 cent. (8 in.) long, 12 mm. 

 (X in.) and more thick, firm, longitudinally fibrillose, even at the 

 apex, zoned within. Gills quite free, very ventricose, 12 mm. (%. 

 in.) and more broad, at first cohering, whitish and flocculose at 

 the edge, then becoming brown-black. 



Pileus when full grown become so even as at first sight to appear smooth, 

 white-cinereous, with fuscous scales; it deliquesces as it expands, and does 

 not become revolute. Flesh scissile, fuliginous. Size various, sometimes as 

 large as the fist, but often less. The stem where the edge of the adpressed 

 pileus touches it is thicker, in the form of an angular, incompletely ringed 

 knot ; the knot however vanishes and the stem becomes equal, nay bulbous. 

 The gills when deliquescing stain abominably black. Commonly in very large 

 clusters ; very changeable according to age and situation. In fine weather it 

 becomes whiter, as do also the gills : Paul. t. 129. 



On rich soil by waysides, &c. Common. May-Nov. 



Very easily identified from the peculiar form of the stem. Spores ellipsoid 

 or sphaeroid-ellipsoid, 9-10x6 mk. K. ; 9x5 mk. W.G.S. Edible. Name 

 atramentum, ink. From its dissolving into an inky fluid. Fr. Monogr. \. p. 

 455. Hym. Eur. p. 322. Berk. Out. p. 177. /. 12. /. i. C. Hbk. n. 456. S. 

 Mycol. Scot. n. 424. Agaricus Bull. t. 164. Sow. t. 188. Fl. Dan. t. 1370. 

 Badh. i. t. io./ i, ii. /. g.f. i, 2. Klotsch. Fl. Bor. t. 390. Vaill. Par. t. 

 12. f. io, n. Compare Schceff. t. 67, 68. 



5. C. fuscescens Fr. Pileus 5 cent. (2 in.) rarely 7.5 cent. (3 

 in.) broad, whitish, becoming fuscous at the disc, slightly fleshy 

 at the middle, globose and ovate then expanded, and at length 

 revolute when deliquescent, not sulcate, obtuse, unpolished, 

 squamulose on the disc. Stems fistulose to the base, equal (not 

 ventricose when young), at first very short, soon elongated, 7.5 

 cent. (3 in.) long, 4-6 mm. (2-3 lin.) thick, in its earliest stage only 

 obsoletely ringed towards the base, when full grown even and 

 smooth. Gills free, very broad, semi-ovate, at the first white then 

 umber. 



Csespitose, fragile. Stem slightly silky under a lens, though even and 

 smooth to the naked eye. Gills at the first adhering to the stem, not at the 

 first so densely sprinkled-white as those of C. atramentarius ; in deliquescing 

 they become linear. It is smaller, thinner, at the first more equal than C. 

 atramentarius ; pileus at first covered, not with micaceous atoms, but with a 

 somewhat mealy pruina. 



