COPRINUS STERCORARIUS 



295 



as in C. atramentarius, are very broad relatively to their length 

 and are interlocked during the process of spore-discharge. 



Coprinus stercorarius (Fig. 127) in size, colour, and general 

 appearance very much resembles C. narcoticus, but the meal-cells 

 on its pileus have a larger diameter, there are four spores on each 

 basidium instead of three, the odour is faint instead of being re- 

 markably pungent, and the fruit-bodies usually, although not always, 

 spring from a small 

 black sclerotium 

 (Fig. 127). C. ster- 

 corarius, as its name 

 implies, is found on 

 dung. In my labora- 

 tory it frequently 

 comes up on horse 

 dung and cow dung. 

 Experience has 

 taught me that, on 

 very wet dung, it 

 succeeds better than 

 most other Coprini. 

 To obtain C. stercora- 

 rius at Winnipeg all 

 that it is necessary to 

 do is to obtain some 

 fresh cow manure, 

 put it in a large covered crystallising dish, and leave it on a 

 laboratory table. Then, in the course of about two weeks, the 

 fungus begins to produce its characteristic sclerotia at the surface 

 of the dung. These sclerotia are at first white but soon turn black 

 and, if left on the dung for a few weeks, germinate and produce 

 fruit-bodies. In Fig. 127, on the left, is shown a fruit-body which 

 is developing from a sclerotium while, on the right, are shown 

 some fruit-bodies which have sprung from the hyphae of an ordmary 

 mycelium. 



Coprinus stercorarius resembles C. sterquilinus and C. narco- 

 ticus in being homothallic and in thus differing from C. lagopus, 



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Fig. 127. — Coprinus stercorarius. On the left, a 

 fruit-body coming up on a sclerotium formed 

 five weeks previously on wet cow dung. On the 

 right, several fruit-bodies springing directly 

 from an ordinary myceliun\ contained in cow 

 dung. The left-liand pileus is covered with a 

 greyish -white floccose meal. From the right- 

 hand pileus the meal has been rubbed off. 

 Natural size. 



