LIFE STORY OF MUSHROOMS 219 
poisonous. No one should gather mushrooms to eat 
unless he knows very well the kind he picks. Some of 
the poisonous ones have a cup or bag around the lower 
end of the stem. But 
some which have this 
bag or cup are good to 
eat. So you would bet- 
ter read their stories, 
and not pick them for 
eating until you know 

the kinds as well as 
you know the faces of ee one 
your playmates. 
If you should pick a basket full of different kinds in 
the woods, and place the caps down on white paper, you 
would catch the spores. 
You would probably find 
that the spores in some 
cases are black, in others 
brown, yellow, rose- 
coloured, or white. 
The ink mushrooms. 
These are curious and 

Fig. 269. The ink cap turning to ink. 
interesting. Soon after 
they come up, the gills and much of the cap turn 
to a black, inky fluid which you could write with. 
One kind is called “ink cap,” another is called 
