316 FUNGUS-FLORA. 



split. Covered continuously at first with a velvety greyish 

 felt that is persistent, and becomes torn into patches when 

 the pileus expands. Pileus pallid or yellowish below the 

 grey nap. 



This agaric is found in woods and gardens in autumn ; on 

 the ground, also sometimes on dunghills; it is generally 

 solitary, sometimes more or less gregarious, but not forming 

 clusters. Stem hollow, naked, pubescent, terminating in a 

 point at the base and the summit, 1-2 lines thick, and about 

 2 in. high. The pileus is ashy-grey or mouse-grey, becoming 

 blackish with age, surface tomentose ; the tomentum is 

 easily removed when the pileus is smooth and striate. It is 

 at first cylindrical, then conical, and long enough to cover 

 more than half the length of the stem ; as maturity ap- 

 proaches the pileus becomes more expanded, and the split 

 margin turns up a little ; during middle age it is 8-10 lines 

 across, and 1318 lines high. It is very fugacious and 

 deliquescent. Gills free, narrow, more especially near to 

 the stem, at first white, at length black. (Bulliard.) 



The root is small, black, and emits a few short brown 

 fibres. 



The stem is upright, cylindrical, hollow ; the substance 

 white, and easily torn into filaments ; it is covered, on the 

 outside, with a lead-coloured down. 



The gills are arranged in three series, those of the first 

 series long and narrow ; they are white on the sides, but 

 furnished with a black down or powder on the edges, which, 

 before the plant is torn, makes them appear wholly black. 



The pileus is at first oval or oblong ; when the rim begins 

 to enlarge, it becomes of a pyramidal figure ; at last bell- 

 shaped, lacerates, and soon dissolves. In its first stages it 

 is thickly covered with a grey or lead-coloured down, which 

 covering tears in fragments as the pileus extends in breadth, 

 and remains on its white striated surface in broken, deformed, 

 grey patches. 



I gathered this species near .Ogden-Kirk, amongst wet 

 moss, in the ground where peat is dug for fuel. (Bolton.) 



Coprinus niveus. Fr. 



Pileus ^-1 in. across, submembranaceous, elliptical, then 

 campanulate and expanded, almost persistently covered with 



