AGARICS 165 



of the twenty pounds of dainty diet, fit for a king, so 

 easily available. 



INKY MUSHROOM 

 Copriiius atramentarius 



In frequent company with the foregoing will be 

 found another allied species, Coprinus atramentarius 

 (Plate 17), with the same inky propensities, which is 

 scarcely less delicious as an article of food, fin this 

 species the shaggy feature is absent, there being 

 merely a few obscure slightly raised stains at the 

 summit, of a brownish color. The stem 

 Botanical is white and hollow. The surface of 

 characters the pileus is smooth and of a Quaker- 

 drab color,, occasionally dirty-white, or 

 with a slight shade of ochre, moist to the touch, dark- 

 ened by rubbing. In the eatable stage the caps are 

 drooping, as shown in the cluster on the plate, while 

 the mature specimen expands considerably before its 

 inky deliquescence._^ Its texture when young is firm, 

 and the thick gray cuticle peels readily, leaving an 

 appetizing nutty-flavored morsel, delicious even when 

 raw. The inky Agaric is frequent about barn-yards, 

 gardens, and old stumps in woods, and usually grows 

 in such crowded masses that the central individuals 

 are compressed into hexagonal shape. Like the 

 previous variety, it should be collected for food while 

 its gills are in the white or pink stage. 



Cordier claims that all the species of Coprinus are 

 eatable at this stage. The profusion in which they 

 occasionally abound renders it often a simple matter 

 to obtain a bushel of them in a few minutes. 



