Jakob E. Lange: Studies in the Agarics of Denmark. II. 35 



In most Coprini the young cap is covered by a coating 

 (a universal veil). But this coating is either made up of 

 filaments, which form a felty or pilose covering, or of loose, 

 globular cells (in which case it will be mealy or granular). 

 A number of species, especially smaller ones, are entirely devoid 

 of universal veil, the cap being consequently absolutely naked. 

 The genus thus naturally falls in three main groups or tribes, 

 which I term comali, farinosi and nudi. 



The details of the. classification can be gathered from the 

 Key (see over) and require no particular explanation. 



As indicated by the name Coprinus the genus is largely 

 coprophile. Of the 56 species in Fries' Hymenomycetes 17 



(or about V3) are said to § row on dun § or manured soil - of 

 the 169 species recorded by Massee (Annals of Botany, X.), 

 about V4 are said t0 De coprophile. — Strange to say »Fungi 

 fimicoli danici« by E. Chr. Hansen (1876) only mentiones 5 (or 6) 

 dung-loving species as found in Denmark. The number seems 

 to be at least 13. Of the 32 species noted by me at least 12 

 are coprophile. — The xylophile species are comparatively 

 few, and it is not always easy to make out whether a species 

 is really wood-loving or not. Thus f. inst. C. domesticus grows 

 occasionally on decaying wood (rotten timber etc.), but is also to 

 be met with growing on the ground in woods. And C. micaceus, 

 which generally grows around trunks, is not unfrequently met 

 with growing apparently as a parasite on living trees. 



The total number of my Danish Coprini is 32 (or 30, if the 

 Friesian limitation of the genus be adhered to). This is about 

 3 / i of the number of Swedish species mentioned in »Hymenomyc. 

 Europ.«; but since the time of Fries the number of known 

 species of Coprinus has been very much augmented — even if 

 the enormous number mentioned by Massee (loc. cit.) comprises 

 a considerable number of synonyms, as in all probability it 

 does. 



Like other, especially coprophile, fungi some of the Coprini 

 are almost cosmopolitan. One (C. curtus) is in fact only recorded 

 from South Africa and Denmark. This world-wide distribution 

 together with the ephemeral nature of many species goes a long 

 way to explain the large number of synonyms, as the same 

 plant, when gathered in different parts of the globe, will often 

 be awarded different names and recorded as a number of »new 



3* 



