COPRINUS LAGOPUS AND ALLIED SPECIES 301 



(7) The length of the gills relatively to the breadth tends to be 

 greater than in the Atramentarius Sub-type. 



The Lagopus Sub-type approaches very closely to the Micaceus 

 Sub-type from which it differs in possessing dimorphic basidia 

 instead of tetramorphic. 



Representative Species. — The Lagopus Sub-type has been 

 founded upon Coprinus lagopus but includes Coprinus domesticus 

 (Fig. 25, p. 43), C. echinosporus, and certain other species, closely 

 allied to C. lagopus, which 

 hitherto have been confused 

 with this species and have not 

 been described in sufficient 

 detail to permit of exact 

 identification. In all these 

 species : (1) the basidia are 

 dimorphic and (2) the cystidia 

 cross the interlamellar spaces 

 only in the young unexpanded 

 fruit-body and, as the pileus 

 expands, become mere pegs 

 projecting from the gill-sides. 



Within the Lagopus Sub- 

 type may also be included the 

 well-known Coprinus niveus 

 (Fig. 126, p. 294), although it is somewhat aberrant in that its 

 basidia vary from dimorphic to trimorphic. 



Coprinus lagopus and Allied Species. — Unfortunately there is 

 a good deal of confusion in the literature of mycology in respect to 

 the nomenclature of Coprinus lagopus and its allies. It is therefore 

 necessary to state that the fungus to which I attach this name is 

 apparently the C. lagopus described by Lange^ in his monograph 

 of the genus Coprinus, and is certainly the C. lagopus carefully 

 illustrated by BrefelcP in his Untersuchungen. 



Coprinus macrorhizus (Pers.) Rea (=C fimetarius Fr. var. 



1 J. E. Lange, "Studies in the Agarics of Denmark," Dansk Botanisk Forening, 

 1915, Part II, Coprinus, p. 41. 



2 0. Brefeld, U7itersuchungen iiber Pilze, Heft III, 1877, Taf. VI, Fig. 1, a—g. 



Fig. 131. — Coprinus lagopus. Very small 

 fruit-bodies coming up spontaneously 

 on the under side of a horse-dung ball 

 in the laboratory at Winnipeg. 

 Natural size. 



