The gills are at first whitish, but thep become brown or black 
with age. The stem is slender, hollow and white. The spores 
are dark-brown, but not truly black, as in the other species 
mentioned above. The cap is commonly about one inch 
broad—sometimes two; the stem is one to three inches long, 
and scarcely thicker than a common pipestem. The plants 
grow in clusters from decaying wood, or on the ground. When 
they appear to grow from the ground, it is probable that some 
decaying root or piece of wood lies buried beneath them. It may 
often be found growing from the margin of sidewalks in our cit- 
ies, where shade trees have been cut down. The decaying roots 
or stumps of these trees afford a suitable habitat for this fungus, 
and often successive crops appear at intervals in the same spot 
from May to November. Whenever the temperature and the de- 
gree of moisture is suitable, they grow. Indeed, they are a kind 
of barometer, and sometimes presage rain. I have repeatedly no- 
ticed their yellowish clusters beginning to appear a day or two 
before a rain-storm. If the weather is very warm and the air 
dry, a cluster may be young and fresh in the morning, and old 
and withered in the afternoon. 
European writers do not class this among the edible species, 
probably because of its small size. But it compensates in num- 
bers for its lack of size, and it has the advantage of being easily 
and frequently procurable. In tenderness and delicacy it does 
not seem to me inferior to the shaggy coprinus, and it certainly 
is harmless, for I have repeatedly eaten it with no ill results. 
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