tem is a little hollow as it matures. In some localities it
is more common than the _campestris_ in fields and pastures, while in
other places it is found only in rich gardens, about hot beds, or in
cold frames. It is not distinguished from the _campestris_ by market
people, but is often sold with the latter.

[Illustration: FIG. 36.

THE HORSE MUSHROOM.

(_Agaricus Arvensis._)

This variety is edible.]

=3. Shaggy Mane, Ink Cap, or Horsetail Fungus= (_Coprinus
Comatus_).--This mushroom possesses the most marked characteristics of
any of the edible species; it would seem impossible to mistake its
identity from written descriptions and illustrations. It is considered
by many superior in flavor to the _campestris_.

The top or cap does not expand in this mushroom, until it begins to
turn black, but remains folded down about the stem like a closed
umbrella. Mature specimens are usually three to five, occasionally
from eight to ten, inches high. The stem is hollow. The inside of the
cap or gills and the stem are snow white. The outer surface of the
cap, which is white in young plants, becomes of a faint, yellow-brown
or tawny color in mature specimens, and also darker at the top.
Delicate scales often rolled up at their lower ends are seen on the
exterior of the cap, more readily in mature mushrooms, hence the name
"shaggy mane." There is a ring around the stem at the lower margin of
the cap, and it is so loosely attached to either the cap or stem that
it sometimes drops down to the base of the latter.

The most salient feature of shaggy mane is the change which occurs
when it is about a day old; it turns black and dissolves away into an
inky fluid, whence the other common name "ink cap." The mushroom
should not be eaten when in this condition. The ink cap is usually
found growing in autumn, rarely in summer, in richer earth than the
common mushroom. One finds it in heaps of street scrapings, by
roadsides, in rich lawns, in soils filled with decomposing wood and in
low, shaded, moist grounds.

[Illustration: FIG. 37.

THE HORSE-TAIL FUNGUS.

(_Coprinus Comatus._)

Edible; cut shows entire plant and section.]

=4. Fairy-ring Mushroom= (_Marasmius Oreades_).--This species usually
grows on lawns, in clusters which form an imperfect circle or
crescent. The ring increases in size each year as new fungi grow on
the outside, while old ones toward the center of the circle perish.
This mushroom is small and slender,