GUIDE TO THE MODELS OF FUNGI. 



37 



decaying posts or railings, the spores will in most cases produce a 

 ' crop in the following autumn. 



68. Coprinus picaceus Fr. — Pileus black, conical, white-patched ; 

 gills free, ventricose, dead ashy-black, and deliquescent ; stalk tall, 

 hollow, fragile, ringless, and white. 



C. picaceus, sometimes termed the " magpie mushroom," is rare, 

 and grows by grassy roadsides and in open grassy places in woods. 

 Sometimes this plant is sterile and white, and the gills dissolve into 

 a milk-white fluid. Considered poisonous and has an unpleasant 

 odour. 



69. Coprinus niveus Fr. — Pileus snow-white and mealy-floccose 

 or squamulose, at first ovate, then expanded, at length revolute and 

 torn ; gills adnexed, narrow, becoming black and deliquescent ; stalk 

 at first short, but soon elongated, fragile, covered with snow-white 

 down. 



C. niveus is extremely common on horse - dung from early 

 summer to early winter ; it varies in size. It is frequent on 

 mushroom beds, and sometimes so abundant that it prevents the 

 growth of the mushroom. 



70. Coprinus micaceus Fr. — Pileus somewhat membranaceous, at 

 first dull yellow-ferruginous, then brown-fuscous, undulated, irregular, 

 lobed, striate, longitudinally split, and 

 covered with minute shining glistening 

 particles; gills adnexed, black-brown, de- 

 liquescent ; stalk hollow and soft, even, 

 silky, white, then fibrillose. 



C. micaceus is common, and generally 

 grows in clusters near stumps and at the 

 base of old rails and fences. Sometimes 

 it appears to be terrestrial. 



71. Coprinus plicatilis Fr, — Pileus 

 grey-fuscous, with a darker fuscous disc, 

 at first ovoid, but soon expanded, at length 

 depressed and beautifully radiato-furrowed ; . 

 gills free, blackish-grey ; stalk thin, hollow, '^'(o'AT-thi^d naturaUize") 

 equal, smooth, pallid-pellucid. 



Common in fields and by grassy roadsides in damp, warm, and 

 foggy weather in autumn. It sometimes grows in spring and summer 

 when the weather is wet, cloudy, and warm. It is very short-lived, 

 and is usually seen in perfection in the morning ; after an hour or 

 two it collapses and vanishes. 



GENUS III.—BOLBITIUS Fr. 



There are ten British species of Bolbitius ; of these only one 

 is represented by a model. The species do not deliquesce, as in 



