174 



NATURE STUDY REVIEW 



[8:5— May, 1912 



Fig. 2. — Coprinus micaceous (the Little Inky-Cap). Note 

 THE Lines Running Up and Down the Cap. 



set in a row with the base of the stem pushed into a pin the 

 head of which has been cut off, as in our photograph. (Fig. 4.) 



Perhaps someone will now ask whether it is safe to touch 

 them. Are they not poisonous? Oh, yes! There are poison- 

 ous ones, but it is always safe to touch them. As long as you 

 do not take them into your mouth or swallow pieces of them, 

 you can touch every kind of mushroom or toadstool — if you 

 prefer the latter name — that grows. The poison does not enter 

 the skin as does the poison of the poison-ivy. But we will 

 speak of this again. 



We will now begin to look for other kinds growing else- 

 where. One of the commonest kinds grows around stumps or 

 the base of trees. This has black spores when expanded, and 

 when old the gills turn into an inky fluid. They are called 

 the "Little inky-caps,' and come up in dense clusters which jnish 

 thru the ground at the tree or stump. Sometimes they appear 

 to come up thru the grass as in our illustration (Fig. 1), but 

 if we dig down into the ground we usually find old stumps or 

 roots there. These are edible and are often collected as fast 

 as they appear by those people who eat them, so that unless 

 one gets up early in the morning, he may find that his neighlx)r 

 has been there before him. 



There are three kinds of *inky-cai)s"' which we can eat. 

 Besides these there are several more which every farm boy is 

 acquainted with because they come up on the manure-pile out 



