1 66 EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



Like the foregoing, a large cluster of these mush- 

 rooms leaves a most unsightly spot on the lawn. A 

 diluted solution of this melting sub- 

 Coprinus stance, as Cooke assures us, has been 

 ink used " to replenish the ink-bottle. The 



resemblance is so complete that it may 

 readily be employed as a substitute, all that is required 

 being to boil and strain it, and add a small quantity 

 of corrosive sublimate to prevent its turning mouldy." 

 It may also be employed as pigment. It is, indeed, 

 quite possible to paint the portrait of Coprinus with 

 its own dark sepia, as the author has personally 

 demonstrated. (See head- piece to " Illustrations.") 



MILKY MUSHROOM 

 Lactarius deliciosus 



Prominent among the fungi which give unmistak- 

 able characters for their identification is the genus 

 Lactarius, or milky mushrooms, another group of the 

 agarics or gilled fungi, from which we will select for 



our first example the Lactarius delict' 



Orange = milk osus, or orange- milk Agaric (Plate i8). 



Agaric The figure will itself almost serve to 



identify it in its advanced open stage. 

 Having found a specimen resembling ^ur illustration, 

 and anywhere from three to five inches in expanse, 

 its general upper surface dull reddish -orange in 

 color, more or less plainly banded with darker red, 

 it is safe to predict that when its surface or gills are 

 broken an exudation of milky juice will follow. If 

 this exudation is orange or deep yellow in hue, grad- 

 ually turning greenish on exposure, the identification 



