4(» STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI. 



the gills are of a rich salmon color, i. e., before the spores are ripe, 

 and the taste when raw is a pleasant nutty flavor, reminding one of 

 the meat of fresh green hickory nuts. In a somewhat earlier stage 

 the edges of all the gills are closely applied to the stem which they 

 surround. So closely are they applied to the stem in most cases that 

 threads of mycelium pass from the stem to the edge of the gills. As 

 the cap expands slightly in ageing, these threads are torn asunder 

 and the stem is covered with a very delicate down or with flocculent 

 particles which easily disappear on handling or by the washing of the 

 rains. The edges of the gills are also left in a frazzled condition, as 

 one can see by examining them with a good hand lens. 



The spores now begin to ripen and as they become black the color 

 of the gills changes. At the same time the gills and the cap begin to 

 dissolve into an inky fluid, first becoming dark and then melting into 

 a black liquid. As this accumulates it forms into drops which dangle 

 from the cap until they fall away. This change takes place on the 

 margin of the cap first, and advances toward the center, and the con- 

 trast of color, as the blackening invades the rich salmon, is very 

 striking. The cap now begins to expand outward more, so that it 

 becomes somewhat umbrella shaped. The extreme outer surface 

 does not dissolve so freely, and the thin remnant curls upward and 

 becomes enrolled on the upper side as the cap with wasted gills 

 becomes nearly flat. 



Coprinus atramentarius (Bull.) Fr. Edible. — The ink-cap {Copri- 

 nus atramentarius) occurs under much the same conditions as the 

 shaggy-mane, and is sometimes found accompanying it. It is usually 

 more common and more abundant. It springs up in old or newly 

 made lawns which have been richly manured, or it occurs in other 

 grassy places. Sometimes the plants are scattered, sometimes two 

 or three in a cluster, but usually large clusters are formed where ten 

 to twenty or more are crowded closely together (Fig. 39). The 

 stems are shorter than those of the shaggy-mane and the cap is dif- 

 ferent in shape and color. The cap is egg-shaped or oval. It varies 

 in color from a silvery grey, in some forms, to a dark ashen grey, or 

 smoky brown color in others. Sometimes the cap is entirely smooth, 

 as 1 have seen it in some of the silvery grey forms, where the deli- 

 cate fibres coursing down in lines on the outer surface cast a beauti- 

 ful silvery sheen in the light. Other forms present numerous small 

 scales on the top or center of the cap which are formed by the 

 cleavage of the outer surface here into large numbers of pointed 

 tufts. In others, the delicate tufts cover more or less the entire 

 surface, giving the plant a coarsely granular aspect. This is perhaps 



