TOADSTOOL SIGNATURES. 
31 
the minute spores or reproductive bodies, which fall in due 
season and are wafted away by the wind, floated upon the 
water or carried by animals to points where favorable con¬ 
ditions exist, where a few of them find lodgment and pro¬ 
duce a new mycelium, which in time bears mushrooms 
itself. 
These spores are microscopic bodies, globular or ellip¬ 
soidal, and commonly measure about one-half a thousandth 
of an inch in diameter. They are interesting objects un¬ 
der a compound microscope of sufficient power, as then their 
form and their nuclei are plainly discernible. The color 
of the spores of a specimen forms the first characteristic to 
be noted in the process of assigning it to its proper genus. 
Kvery species of the gilled mushrooms falls within one of 
the following five color divisions : That comprising mush¬ 
rooms with white spores (leucosporse), pink spores (rho- 
dosporse), brown or rusty spores (ochrosporse), purplish 
spores (porphyrosporse), and blackish spores (melanospo- 
rse). These colors merge one into another in a manner 
that is somehat confusing, but still it is of the very first 
importance to know at the start the color of ink in which 
one’s specimen is going to put itself on record. 
But now how to arrange matters so that our mushroom 
may subscribe his family name in his own quaint way. 
He will furnish the ink, but we must furnish the paper. 
Procure some sheets of white Bristol board or stiff paper, 
and also prepare some gum arabic solution—very weak— 
a teaspoonful to a pint of water (Mellvaine). By means 
of a brush, coat a circular portion of the paper somewhat 
larger than the cap of the mushroom and allow the same 
to dry. The specimen selected should be fully grown and 
perfect. Then cut off the mushroom stem close to the cap 
and place it gills downward upon the prepared surface 
Place a tumbler over it to shield it from dust and drafts 
and to confine the moisture, which must be depended upon 
