NATURAL HISTORY SI KVKV 



a height of 10 cm. with a pileus up to 5 cm. in breadth. Spo 

 umber-purple, ellipsoid, bluntly pointed a1 one or both ends, 

 12 to 14 x 8 to 9 (i. 



PSATHYRA. 



Veil none, or only universal and floccose-fibrillose ; pili 

 conical or campanulate, membranaceous, the margin a1 

 straight and adpressed to the stem. Stem somewhal cartila 



nous, fistulose, polished, fragile. Plants slender, hygrophanous, 

 growing on the ground or on trunks. Spores fuscous-purple. 



Psathyra semivestita B. and Br. 



Pileus dark-brown becoming pale, ovate, obtuse, sprinkled 

 with little snow-white fibrils more than half way up. 



Lamellae adnate, ascending, broad behind, umber-brown. 



Stem fistulose, nearly straight, fibrillose-silky, snow-white 

 with a pale under tinge of brown, the walls within white with 

 down. 



Pileus about 12 mm. broad; stem 5 cm. Long, 3 mm. thick. 

 Spores clongated-pruniform, 14 //,. 



In short grass in open woods. Winfield, June, 190."). Pileus 

 hygrophanous, often more or less umbonate in young plant-, the 

 umbo paler as the plants part with their moisture and disappear- 

 ing with age. The minute fibrils or atoms with which the outer 

 part of the young pileus is clothed glisten when viewed under a 

 lens. The stem is rigid-fragile, more or less striate beneath its 

 silky covering. Pileus usually 12 to 15 mm. broad, exceptionally 

 2.") mm. The spores are dark brown, 13 to 18 x 8 to 9 fj.. Voting 

 umbonate specimens are perhaps P. umbonata Peck. 



COPRINUS. 



Hymenophore separate from the stem; lamellae membranous, 

 at first pressed together and cohering, scissile, at length melting 

 away into a black fluid; trama obsolete. Spores oval, even, black. 



With a ring 1 



Without a ring . 4 



1. Not hygrophanous 



1. Hygrophanous 



2. Pileus whitish or grayish, breaking up into 



large scales C. comatus. 



2. Pileus lurid-fuliginous, sulfate, disk squamu- 



lose C. aim mcHtai- 

 'S. Pileus thin, fragile, with superficial 



patches of foment um ('. variegat 



4. Pileus adorned with micaceous scales C. micaa 



4. Pileus adorned with floccose-squamose white 



scales C. fimentarius. 



4. Pileus very delicate, glabrous C. plicatilis. 



4. Pileus very delicate, slightly scurfy C. ephemerus. 



