species, probably because it was implicated in the death of a 
6-year-old child in Milwaukie, Oregon, near Portland, in 1960 
(20). Two unusual alkaloids, baeocystin and nor-baeocystin, 
have been isolated from this species in addition to psilocybin 
and psilocin. They may occur in other Psilocybe species as 
well, and their pharmacology has not been studied. 
I have been unable to send voucher specimens of the Eugene 
mushroom to Mexico City for formal identification, and, 
though I believe it to be P. baeocystis, I will report it here 
simply as Psilocybe sp. Ithas no common name. I will refer to it 
here as the ‘‘Eugene Psilocybe.’’ Because it grows inland in 
scattered locations, not many Liberty Cap eaters have tried it. I 
have talked with only a few persons who have ingested both 
species. They report that the two mushrooms are roughly 
equivalent in psychoactive power but that the Liberty Cap 
produces more prominent visual displays, whereas the 
‘Eugene Psilocybe’’ causes more physical changes in the 
body. 
A third Psilocybe is known to many collectors in western 
Washington. Commonly called the ‘‘ Washington Blue Veil,”’ it 
is distinguished from the other species by the persistence of an 
annulus on the stipe, an unusual character in this genus. The 
mushroom blues quite readily, even without injury, and the 
annulus appears often as a thin ring of bluish or bluish black 
tissue, hence the common name. The mushroom has a fleshy 
cap up to 5 cm. wide, of an even chestnut brown color with 
striate margin and viscid pellicle. The veil is white and fleshy 
when young. Stipes are up to 5 mm. wide and 8 cm. long; they 
are fleshy, often convoluted, and often showing blue at the 
base. Habit of growth is grouped to cespitose, often with five or 
six carpophores in a cluster, and the mushroom is abundant on 
manured lawns and bark mulch in the fall after rains. 
Originally thought to be a variety of Psilocybe caerulescens 
Murrill, a species known from Oaxaca, this mushroom first 
appeared on the campus of the University of Washington in 
Seattle in the fall of 1973. It seemed to spread by way of a bark 
mulch in use by the university grounds crew, and enquiring 
graduate students quickly discovered its psychoactivity. It is 
strongly hallucinogenic, producing a typical psilocybin- 
psilocin intoxication in doses of about 20 carpophores. Speci- 
mens collected in 1974 near Olympia, Washington, and sent to 
Mexico City have now been shown not to be P. caerulescens. 
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