366 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



they present us, in a new form, much of the rich 

 material that was in the bodies of the plants whose 

 decay it feeds on. 



The tall "shaggy manes," with half-closed um- 

 brellas, and roughened surfaces, belong to the 

 ink-caps, a group of mushrooms whose spores are 

 not scattered by wind, as the powdery ones are, 

 but carried off in an inky fluid, into which the 

 gills seem to melt, as they pass their prime. They 

 are not edible after the gills begin to darken. 



Some of the gayest mushrooms are not fit to 

 eat; a few of the pale edible-looking ones are 

 deadly poison! The "destroying angel," called 

 the "death cup," also grows in the woods among 

 the fine, wholesome kinds, and it is most impor- 

 tant to let all mushrooms alone, unless you know, 

 with certainty, the edible kinds at sight. People 

 who do not know the good from the bad should 

 not collect mushrooms, and rely on selecting the 

 good ones later under the eye of a competent judge. 

 The poisonous mushrooms contaminate those 

 they touch. So there is real danger in taking any 

 chances. 



Pore-bearing fungi let their spores escape by 

 minute holes in the under surface of the spongy 

 umbrella, or bracket, of the fruiting body. The 

 huge bracket fungi, of dying trees, and many of the 



