lo8 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



brought me a species (new to me) for examination. After cutting 

 ofif the stem I laid it, gills down, in a box to take the color of the 

 spores. I forgot it next day, and when I did come to look at it, I 

 found only a black smudge where once a mushroom had been. 

 Clearly it was a Coprinus. One of our commonest fungi is the 

 Copriniis Canatus, or shaggy, maned mushroom. It is common on 

 our lawns and boulevards, and it thrives equally in lanes and vacant 

 fields and pastures. The pileus is about the shape and size of an 

 egg. Stem white and fibrous, and somewhat bulbous below. The 

 ring slight and easily separated. Gills at first greyish white then 

 becoming black, as it runs away in ink. The cuticle tears away from 

 the pileus in delicate lace-like fringes, brown outside and showing the 

 white substance of the pileus beneath. 



It grows on decaying wood or manure, and is a common 

 ornament on our lawns. What flower could be more graceful than 

 this oval pileus with its delicate lacework. 



Although few people know that this mushroon is edible, con- 

 sumers esteem it among the very best. 



Coprinus Atramentarius,ox Inky Mushroom, is a plebeian fungus, 

 but notwithstanding its democratic instincts, I esteem it among the 

 best. It grows on rotten wood in old coal bins, and on the railroad 

 tracks. It might be called the railroad mushroom, as it has a 

 peculiar fondness for railroad tracks, just outside the rail, where the 

 oil drops from the axle boxes. Among oil, coal and general black- 

 ness it particularly flourishes. It is often found on our lawns, but 

 then it is pale and crowded together as if ashamed of being out of its 

 proper place. Around factories and railroads it most rejoices. I 

 have found enough for a fine meal in the Toronto Union Station. 

 Beside a rail, in the opening left for the wheel flange, the poor 

 fungi were vainly seeking room for their proper development 

 between a three inch plank and an eighty pound steel rail. 



The Atramintarius is totally devoid of a sense of humor ; to 

 see a bunch of these mushrooms smashing their soft bodies in a 

 vain endeavor to lift a steel rail is fairly laughable, but they never 

 learn better. These mushrooms are easily distinguished, and im- 

 possible to mistake for any other species. They have a drab pileus 

 and gills when young, and as they grow old the edge of the pileus 

 expands, splits and drops its inky fluid. No ring, but a distinct 



