Volume JO Number 6 



The Plant World 



B ^agajinc of ©eneral :ffiotang 

 JUNE, 1907 



A MUSHEOOM PARASITIC O^' ANOTIIEE 

 MUSHROOM.* 



By PnoFESSOK Geo. F. Atkinson. 



In 1902 I described a species of mushroom which was par- 

 asitic on anotherf and named it Sti^opliaria coprinopliila, since 

 it was parasitic on a species of Coprinns (C. atrameiitarius) . 

 The plant was first found in tiie vicinity of Ithaca, in a piece of 

 woods on the flats near the head of Cayuga lake, by C. O. Smith, 

 then a graduate student in the University. This was on October 

 9, 1900. Other specimens were found by myself the following 

 year, October 14, 1901, on the Campus of Cornell University, 

 near the street railroad tracks, close to the Armory, and again 

 later in the season on the flats. It has not been observed in the 

 vicinity of Ithaca since that time. 



The fungus is doubly interesting because it is parasitic on 

 another member of the gill bearing Basidiomycetes, and is of 

 considerable size, being quite equal to the size of its liost. It 

 also often grows in dense clusters, as does Coprinns atramenta- 

 rius. The host is verv much deformed and ditficult to recognize, 

 but in some of the large deformed specimens gills begin to form 

 and the parts of the deformed pileus deliquesce into a blackish 

 inky fluid. The color of the host is like that of Coprinus atra- 

 mentarius, and it usually grows in dense clusters in localities fre- 

 quented by this species. These facts point quite clearly then to 

 Coprinus atramentariiis as the host for the parasitic Stropharia, 

 and were so published in 1902 at the time the parasitic species 

 was described.:|: C oprinus atramentariiis occurs singly, and also a 



"Contribution froni tlic Department of Botany, Cornell University, 

 Xo. 119. 



yJour. Myc, 8: 118, 1902. 

 tjour. Mvc, 8: 118. 1902. 



