The gills are at first whitish, but thep become brown or black 

 with age. The stem is slender, hollow and white. The spores 

 are dark-brown, bnt not truly black, as in the other species 

 mentioned above. The cap is commonly about one inch 

 broad — sometmies two; the stem is one to three inches long, 

 and scarcely thicker than a common pijDestem. The plants 

 grow in clusters from decaying wood, or on the ground. When 

 they appear to grow from the ground, it is probable that some 

 decaying root or piece of wood lies buried beneath them. It may 

 often be found growing from the margin of sidewalks in our cit- 

 ies, where shade trees have been cut down. The decaying roots 

 or stumps of these trees afford a suitable habitat for this fungus, 

 and often successive crops appear at intervals in the same spot 

 from May to November. Whenever the temperature and the de- 

 gree of moisture is suitable, they gTow. Indeed, they are a kind 

 of barometer, and sometimes presage rain. I have repeatedly no- 

 ticed their yello^vish clusters beginning to appear a day or two 

 before a rain-storm. If the weather is very warm and the air 

 dry, a cluster may be young and fresh in the morning, and old 

 and withered in the afternoon. 



European writers do not class this among the edible species, 

 probably because of its small size. But it compensates in num- 

 bers for its lack of size, and it has the advantage of being easily 

 and frequently procurable. In tenderness and delicacy it does 

 not seem to me inferior to the shaggy coprinus, and it certainly 

 is harmless, for I have repeatedly eaten it with no ill results. 



36 



