Common Edible Mushrooms

BLACK SPORE PRINT
chiefly on the decaying wood of the roots, and it is not uncommon
for six or eight successive crops to appear each summer for
several years. At Geneva, New York, a mycologist harvested ten
crops from one elm stump during the spring and summer, some
of these being induced to appear by watering the soil around the
stump in periods of dry weather. The total weight of these ten
crops was slightly more than thirty-eight pounds. Some maintain
that this fungus can anticipate rain and will start to grow a day
or two before the rain comes, doubtless because of the high humidity
at that time.
The cap is at first conical, from i to 2 inches wide at the base,
tan in moist weather but becoming nearly white when dried out,
sometimes covered with exceedingly small, shiny particles and
marked with furrows running from the margin up almost to the
center. The gills are between 1/8 and 1/4 inch wide. The stem is
about 1/8 inch wide and 2 or 3 inches long and is white and
brittle.
It has been suggested that the spores of this and certain other
fungi might be added to ink used in signing important documents,
since a microscopic examination of the dried ink would
reveal its identity and forgery would be unlikely, unless the forger
was also a mycologist! This fungus, as well as all other species of
Coprinus, is said to be digested more easily than most other kinds
of mushrooms, since it is almost completely liquefied by its own
enzymes, but it could scarcely be considered a sustaining food.
GENUS Panaeolus
Edible but not recommended: PANAEOLUS
SOLIDIPES
The genus Panaeolus is known by (i) black spores and (z)
gills that do not liquefy, as they do in Coprinus. This species
(Figures 53 and 54) is the only one of sufficient size and prevalence
to justify inclusion here. It is a spring mushroom com-
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