COPRINUS CURTUS ii 



I called it Coprinus plicatiloides} In 1910 I sent a pure culture 

 of the fungus (Figs. 3-5) to the late Professor G. F. Atkinson 2 of 

 Cornell University who, after studying and photographing the 

 fruit-bodies, reported that the species was closely related to Coprinus 

 curtus, a coprophilous species described by Kalchbrenner ^ from South 

 Africa in 1881, from which it differed in its larger size and in having a 

 villose stem. Subsequently Lange * found Coprinus curtus in Den- 

 mark, and he described and illustrated the species in 1 915 in his mono- 

 graph of the genus Coprinus. The species which Lange describes as 

 C. curtus is certainly my C. jjlicatiloides , and the name C.plicatiloides 

 must therefore now be regarded as a mere synonym for C. curtus. 



Taxonomic Description.— Kalchbrenner's description of Coprinus 

 curtus was much too brief and fragmentary to be satisfactory to the 

 systematist ; and even Lange's description lacks certain details 

 which are helpful in distinguishing this species from its fellows, 

 e.g. the absence of cystidia from the sides of the gills and the shape 

 of the pilocystidia. On this account I shall here repeat, with 

 additions and slight emendations based on further study, my own 

 description of the fungus pubhshed in 1920.^ 



Coprinus curtus Kalchbr. 



Kalchbrenner in Fungi Macowaniani, Grevillea, Vol, IX, 1880-1, 

 p. 133.— Lange, in Studies in the Agarics of Denmark, II, Coprinus, 

 Dansk Bot. Ark., Bd. II, 1915, p. 45, PI. I, Fig. /?.— Buller in Three New 

 British Coprini, Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc, Vol. VI, 1920, pp. 364-365, also 

 in his Researches on Fungi, Vol. IV, 1931, Chapter I. Synonym: 

 Coprinus plicatiloides Buller in Researches on Fimgi, Vol. I, Figs. 26, 27, 



1 These Researches, vol. i, 1909, p. 69. 2 q p Atkinson, in litt. 



3 C. Kalchbrenner, " Fungi Macowaniani," Grevillea, vol. ix, 1880-1881, p. 133. 

 Kalchbrenner, in describing Coprinus curtus, gives the correct size of the wild fruit- 

 bodies and mentions the distinctive reddish bran-like scales on the pileus {primum 

 sub lente rubiginoso-furfuraceo, dein pulverulento), but otherwise his description is 

 very incomplete. He does not describe the spores or the cells making up the pileus- 

 scales, and he fails to note the presence of the characteristic capitate pilocystidia 

 on the pileus, the caulocystidia on the stipe, and the absence of pleurocystidia from 

 the gill-sides. 



* J. E. Lange, "Studies in the Agarics of Denmark," Dansk Botanisk Arkiv, 

 Bind II, 191.5, p. 4.5. 



•' A. H. R. Buller, " Three New British Coprini," Tra7is. Brit. Myc. Soc, vol. vi, 

 1920, pp. 364-365. 



