4613 C. U. herbarium) collected on one of
the streets of Ithaca.

=Stropharia stercoraria= Fr., is a closely related plant, about the same
size, but the pileus, first hemispherical, then becoming expanded and
sometimes striate on the margin, while the stem is stuffed. The gills
are said to be of one color and the ring floccose, viscose, and
evanescent in drying. It occurs on dung, or in grassy places recently
manured.

=Stropharia aeruginosa= Curt., the greenish _Stropharia_, is from 6--8
cm. high, and the pileus 5--7 cm. broad. The ground color is yellowish,
but the plant is covered with a greenish slime which tends to disappear
with age. It is found in woods and open places during late summer and in
autumn. According to Stevenson it is poisonous.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] For analytical key to the genera see Chapter XXIV.

CHAPTER V.

THE BLACK-SPORED AGARICS.

The spores are black in mass, not purple tinged. For analytical keys to
the genera see Chapter XXIV.

COPRINUS Pers.

The species of _Coprinus_ are readily recognised from the black spores
in addition to the fact that the gills, at maturity, dissolve into a
black or inky fluid. The larger species especially form in this way an
abundance of the black fluid, so that it drops from the pileus and
blackens the grass, etc., underneath the plant. In some of the smaller
species the gills do not wholly deliquesce, but the cap splits on top
along the line of the longer gills, this split passing down through the
gill, dividing it into two thin laminae, which, however, remain united at
the lower edge. This gives a fluted appearance to the margin of the
pileus, which is very thin and membranaceous.

[Illustration: FIGURE 31.--Coprinus comatus, "shaggy-mane," in lawn.]

The plants vary in size, from tiny ones to those which are several
inches high and more than an inch broad. Their habitat (that is, the
place where they grow) is peculiar. A number of the species grow on dung
or recently manured ground. From this peculiarity the genus received the
name _Coprinus_ from the Greek word [Greek: kopros], meaning dung. Some
of the species, however, grow on decaying logs, on the ground, on
leaves, etc.

=Coprinus comatus= Fr. =Edible.=--One of the finest species in this
genus is the shaggy-mane, or horse-tail mushroom, as it is popularly
called. It occurs in lawns and other grassy places, especially in richly
manured ground. The plants sometimes occur singly, or a