Hugust 



'37 



always makes its appearance in the course of the 

 autumn. 



It is like a cone-shaped mushroom of snowy 

 whiteness, with a few brown specks on the upper 

 part of the cap. When the stem is four or five 

 inches high, the lower part of the cap becomes 

 fringed, and begins to drop a jet-black liquid, which 

 creates a dark ring upon the 

 ground. So long ago as August 

 1888 it struck me that this liquid 

 might be utilised, and accord- 

 ingly I tried an experiment in 

 the manufacture of ink. The 

 agarics were placed in a basin 

 over night, and by the next 

 morning I found they had melted 

 into a quantity of ink as jet 

 black as I could desire. The 

 lines I wrote with this liquid are 

 as bright and clear to-day as 

 they were when first penned 

 eleven years ago. 



The only preparation needed 

 is that the ink should be boiled, 

 strained, and then have the 

 addition of a little corrosive 



sublimate, to prevent any fungoid growth. The 

 specimen bottleful I made in 1888 has remained 

 clear and usable to this day. 



It is singular that a substance so exquisitely white 

 as this fungus is in its early stage should when 

 melting away become of such an inky blackness. 

 It is a circumstance about which I can offer no 

 explanation. 



COPRINUS COMATUS. 



