338 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



may be seen from January to December. ^ Those shown in Figs. 149 

 and 150 were photographed on June 18. At King's Heath I found 

 a cluster of fruit-bodies on December 22. In Manitoba I have met 

 with fruit-bodies in the summer and as late as October 1 8. 



Owing to variations in size, crowding, and habitat, owing also 

 to changes during development and to the effects of the weather, 

 the fruit-bodies of Coprimis micaceus are somewhat variable in 

 appearance ; and isolated fruit-bodies may sometimes be difficult 

 to determine. They stand nearest to those of Coprinus domesticus, 

 from which they are distinguished by their basidia being tetra- 

 morphic instead of dimorphic and by not possessing a well-developed 

 red ozonium. Coprinus congregatus Bulliard, as illustrated in 

 Cooke's Illustrations of British Fungi (Plate 679), seems to me to be 

 simply a small form of Co'pri7ius micaceus. 



The Name Micaceus and the Scales on the Pileus. — The specific 

 name micaceus was given to Coprinus micaceus on account of the 

 fact that the large globular cells of the pilear scales and the large 

 cystidia at the edges and on the faces of the developing gills glitter 

 in the light like particles of mica.^ 



The very young pileus is mealy, i.e. is covered with a layer of 

 globular cells of rather large size which can easily be removed by 

 pressure from the finger. As the pileus grows in size, the mealy 

 layer becomes broken up into mealy scales (Fig. 149, p. 334). The 

 cells forming a scale, like those of C. domesticus but unlike those of 

 Coprinus niveus, C. narcoticus, and C. stercorarius, do not very 

 readily separate from one another but tend to cling together 

 (Fig. 151, B). A few isolated scale-cells resting upon the palisade 

 cells which bound the pileus-flesh on its exterior are shown in 

 Fig. 151 at A. 



The pileus of Coprinus micaceus was described by Fries ^ as 

 "granulis micaceis fugacibus consperso," by Berkeley^ as "sprmkled 

 with glistening meal " ; and these authors did not enter into 



1 Cavleton Rea, " British Basidiomycetae," Cambridge, 1922, p. 506. 

 - P. Phoebus, "Ueber den Keimkornerapparat der Agaricineen und Helvellaceen," 

 Nov. Act. Ac. Leop.-Caroh Nat. Cur., XIX, Pars II, 1842, p. 199. 

 ^ E. Fries, Hyme.normjcetes Europaei, Upsala, 1874, p. 325. 

 4 M. J. Berkeley, Outlines of British Fungology, London, 1860, p. 179. 



