a piece of black paper when the spores are suspected of being 
white. Or it may be placed on a piece of glass, and after the 
spores have been dropped and the cap removed, the glass may be 
placed over a white or a black background, as the circumstances 
may require. To prevent too rapid drying of the cap, and to 
shut out currents of air,a goblet or similar vessel may be inverted 
over the cap while it is dropping its spores. 
Having ascertained the color of the spores, the following table 
will show in which section the species belong: 
SECTIONS OF AGARICINEZ. 
Spores brown, purplish-brown or black, Melanosporae. 
Spores ochraceous or rusty-ochraceous, Ochrosporae. 
Spores rosy or pinkish, Rhodosporae. 
Spores white, whitish or pale yellow, Leucosporae. 
Our edible species of the first section, Melanosporae, are found 
in three genera—Agaricus, Hypholoma and Coprinus. In the 
genus Agaricus, the gills are not attached to the stem; the stem, 
near its top, is surrounded by a membranous ring or collar, and 
the spores, in our edible species, are brown. 
In the genus Hypholoma, the gills are attached to the stem; 
the stem has no collar, and in the single edible species the spores 
are purplish-brown. 
In the genus Coprinus, the gills, when mature, dissolve into 
an inky fluid, and in our edible species the stem has no collar at 
all, or only an evanescent one, and the spores are black, or nearly 
so. Because of the melting of the gills into a black fluid, these 
plants are called “inky fungi.” As in the case of puff-balls, they 
are fit for food only in the young or immature state, and as they 
mature rapidly, great promptness is necessary if we would utilize 
them. 
In the early days of mycology nearly all fungi having gills 
were included in the genus Agaricus. At present, however, it is 
limited to those species that have brown spores, free gills and a 
stem bearing a ring or collar. These characters are found in the 
common mushroom whose botanical name is Agaricus campester. 
(This is commonly written Agaricus campestris, but the more 
classical and more grammatical form is used in Saccardo’s 
Sylloge, and it is adopted here.) There are several edible species 
belonging to this genus, and indeed no dangerously poisonous 
species is known in it. These species are very closely related to 
each other, and perhaps there is no simpler way of expressing 
their distinctive characters than by an analytical table. They 
may be arranged in two groups depending on their place of 
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