Various as are the spore colors in this series (in its broadest sense), there is an entire absence of brown and purple shades in the black spores of four of the genera belonging to this group or series. In Gomphidius the spores are dingy-olivaceous. It is an outsider affiliating with thoroughbreds because of more technical congeniality than other genera afford. Like comets in the universe, it has no home. The singular genus Montagnites (of which but one species has been found in America, and that in Texas) has the relationship of spore-color. Panæolus, Anellaria, Psathyrella, when young, have gills free from each other; Coprinus, in early life, presents them pressed tightly together; as the plants age and the spores ripen, the entire gill structure becomes black and dissolves into an inky fluid, the color of which is due to the spores.
The species are all of delicate body, and many of them add generously to table luxuries.
COPRI´NUS Pers.
Gr—dung.
Pileus separate from the stem. Gills membranaceous, at first closely pressed together, cohering, at length melting into a black fluid. Trama obsolete. Spores oval, even, black.
The extreme closeness of the gills and their entire deliquescence into a fluid, black from the spores, sharply define this genus and separate it from all others. At first the form is oval or cylindrical; most are furnished with a downy or scurfy veil often adhering to the pileus, sometimes forming an adhering volva at the base of the stem. Nearly all are ephemeral, many completely disappearing in a day.
Cystidia (sterile cells) of large size are frequent on the gills of many species.
Plate CI.
Chart of genera in black-spored series—Melanosporae, Page [368].