A MUSHROOM PAIIASITIC OA^ AXOTHER :\IUSHKOOM. 125 



where the veil Avas attached. This ring is often formed of coarse 

 floccose tufts, the remnant of tlie veil. The veil is verv evident 

 in the voiino' stau'e, as shown in the Initton mushrooms in figures 

 23 and 24. There is one curious thing iu connection with the 

 taste of this Stroj^haria parasite of tlie Coprinus. The taste is 

 very similar to that of its host, the CopriiiKS atvamentarlus, a 

 slio'ht nnttv taste as of fresh hickorv nuts before tliev have dried 

 or quite ripened. Mushrooms sometimes have a flavor or odor 

 suggestive of tlieir environment. Dr. Peck says that A;/ai'irus 

 mantnntis has an odor suggestive of the sea. Several years ago 

 I received specimens of ToJraria speciosa from Lansing, Michi- 

 gan. They were found growing in a potato patch. Ou decay- 

 ing the fungi had an odor of rotten potatoes. 



While there are many microscopic fungi wliicli are parasitic 

 on mushrooms, comparatively few of the gill hearing fungi are 

 parasitic on other members of their own family or other families 

 of fungi. Two cases mav be mentioned here. A snecies of Vol- 

 varia (T'. Jovckiiki. Berkeley*) is parasitic on Cliforijhr nehu- 

 laris in Europe. The host plant is here not so l)adly deformed, 

 the pileus becoming well expanded and the gills normal. Nyc- 

 talis parasitica (Bull.) Fr., is a small plant on species of Russula 

 in Europe. One species of Xyctalis is common in this country 

 on. dead or decaying specimens of Russula, Lactarius, or other 

 agarics. It is NijrtaJis adevopliora Fr. 



The Stropharia parasite of Coprinus has been known for a 

 number of years. Dr. Peck first described it in 1884 as Agari- 

 cus (Panaeohis) epimyces-[, parasitic on fungi, from Xorth 

 Greenbush, X. Y., and collected probably as early as Xovember, 

 1881, since the report in which it is published was transmitted to 

 the Legislature in January, 1882. Dr. Peck does not mention the 

 name of the host, probably because of the difficulty of determin- 

 ing the abnormal specimens under most circumstances. The 

 first pul)lication of the identification of the host plant was by 



*Enol. FL. .5. 104. Outlines Britisli Fimgology. pi. 7. Fig. 2, 1860. 

 Cooke Ilhis., 295. Quelet. Champ. France. 2. 386. 



t35th Kept. X. Y. State Mns. Xat. Hist., 133, 1884. 



