REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 1903 33 



Psilocybe foenisecii (Pers.) Fr. 



HAYMAKERS PSILOCYBE. MOWERS MUSHROOM 



PLATE 86, FIG. 1-11 



Pileus thin, campanulate or convex, obtuse, glabrous, hygroph- 

 anous, brown or reddish brown when moist, paler when dry ; gills 

 broad, adnate, minutely crenulate on the edge, ventricose, subdis- 

 tant, brown ; stem slender, nearly straight, hollow, rigid, fragile, 

 glabrous, pminose at the top, pallid or rufescent; spores brown, 

 subelliptic, .0005-.000G of an inch long, .00025-.0003 broad. 



The haymakers psilocybe is a small but very regular, neat and 

 attractive species which gets its name from its usual place of 

 growth. This is in grassy places, on lawns or in meadows, where 

 it is often destroyed by the mower while cutting grass. Its cap 

 is conic or somewhat bell shaped when young, but it becomes 

 more convex with age. AVhen fresh and moist it is dark brown or 

 reddish brown and is usually marked on the margin by darker 

 parallel radiating lines. By the escape of the surplus moisture 

 these lines disappear and the cap becomes paler, assuming a 

 grayish or ashy gray color. The moisture generally escapes first 

 from the center of the cap though the flesh is thicker there than 

 on the margin. This gives a somewhat variegated appearance to 

 the cap while the moisture is escaping, but after the evaporation 

 is completed the color is nearly uniform. Sometimes the center 

 of the cap has a reddish or tan colored hue, in which case this 

 color is generally retained for a time after the escape of the 

 moisture. The cap is generally brown in completely dried and 

 shriveled specimens. The gills are rather broad, not crowded, 

 somewhat narrowed behind and attached to the stem. They are 

 pale brown when young, blackish brown when old. The stem is 

 slender, usually long and nearly straight, hollow, easily broken 

 and paler than the moist cap. It is sometimes tinged with red. 

 The spores in our plant slightly exceed the dimensions given to 

 the spores of the Eurojjean plant. 



The cap is 6-12 lines broad; the stem 2-3 inches long, about 1 

 line thick. This mushroom grows gregariously in rich grassy 

 places, generally appearing in May and June. Sometimes it ap- 

 pears in great numbers and in successive crops, otherwise it would 



