134 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



were from one-quarter to one-third of an inch in height. At the 

 Roj^al Herbarium Mr. Massee at once recognised the fungus as 

 Psathyra urticaecola, and this view was sustained by other my- 

 cologists working there. The correctness of the identification is 

 supported by the original description of the species as given by 

 Berkeley and Broome/ which I find to be as follows : 



"A. (Psathyra) urticaecola, n. sp. Pileo campanulato, margine 

 striato, stipiteque sursum attenuato, fistuloso, insititio fioccu- 

 lentis albis ; lamellis antice ventricosis, postice attenuatis, ex albo 

 spadiceis. 



" On nettle-roots. King's Cliffe, Aug. 8, 1858. 



" Pileus two lines across, campanulate, flocculent, white ; margin 

 at length straight, striate ; stem short, slender, attenuated upwards, 

 flocculent, fistulose, springing immediately from the matrix ; gills 

 ventricose in front, attenuated behind, adnexed, at first white, then 

 a rich chocolate. 



" Allied to A. pennatusy 



The specimens which Berkeley and Broome deposited in the 

 Kew Herbarium are so shrivelled that they were found to be of 

 little or no value in assisting identification of the living fungus ; 

 but it was seen that Berkeley had added a note upon the specimen 

 sheet, which contained a description of the species in English similar 

 to that just quoted and also the following additional remark : 



" Allied to A. pennatus but gills by no means black ; habit of a 

 Coprinus or A. sericellus." Finally, there was a pencil note on the 

 sheet showing an oval spore and a description of the spores as 

 " brown with a very slight purple tinge." 



The King's Cliffe specimens are illustrated in Plate 596 of Cooke's 

 Illustrations of British Fungi, and the size of the spores is there 

 given as 7 X 4 yii,. 



From the above description, notes, and illustrations, I was able 

 to convince myself that the fungus which I had collected at Kew 

 was identical with Psathyra urticaecola Berk, et Broome. 



I discovered that the supposed Psathyra is in reality a Coprinus. 

 The sticks on which the young fruit-bodies were growing were placed 



1 Berkeley and Broome, " Notices of British Fungi," Ann. and Mag. of Nat. 

 Hist., May and June, 1861. 



