REPORT OF THE STATd BOTANIST 



243 



The Inky coprinus is rauoh less attractive in its appearance than 

 the Shaggy coprinus. Its cap is quite smooth except on the disk, 

 which is sometimes spotted with a few obscure scales. The color 

 is grayish or grayish-brown, sometimes with a slight suggestion 

 of lead color. The margin is sometimes irregularly notched or 

 lobed. 



The gills are at first crowded and whitish, but they soon be- 

 come black and moist and gradually dissolve away, forming an 

 inky dripping fluid which is suggestive of the name of the spe- 

 cies, and which may be used as ink. 



The stem is rather slender, smooth and hollow. It sometimes 

 has a slight vestige of a collar near the base, but it soon 

 disappears. 



The cap varies from one to three inches or more in diameter, 

 the stem is two to four inches long, one-sixth to one-third of an 

 inch thick. 



It grows in clusters in rich soil, in gardens, waste places or in 

 woods, and appears in late summer or in autumn. The form 

 growing in woods is generally smaller and more beautiful than 

 that growing in open places. It may be called var. silvestris. 



The cap sometimes appears as if suffused with a bloom. It 

 deliquesces rapidly and it is, therefore, more available for catsup 

 than for food. If intended for the table it must be cooked as 

 soon as brought to the house. In Europe both this and the "pre- 

 ceding species appear in spring as well as in summer and autumn, 

 but I have not seen them early in the season in our State. 



i 



Coprinus micaceus Fr. 

 Glistening Coprinus. 



Plate 11. Fies. 1 to 6. 



Pileus thin, at first ovate, then campanulate or expanded, 

 striate, sometimes glistening with shining particles when young, 

 buff -yellow or tawny-yellow ; lamellae crowded, whitish, then 

 tinged with pinkish or purplish-brown, finally black ; stem slender, 

 fragile, hollow, white ; spores elliptical, brown, .00025 to .0003 in. 

 long. 



The Glistening coprinus is a small but common and beautiful 

 species. Its cap is somewhat bell-shaped and marked with 

 impressed lines or striations from the margin to or beyond the 



