364 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



Pileus 5-12 mm. high and broad, pallid or ochraceous, then 

 gre}dsh-hy aline, o^^ate-conical, then revolute and radially sul- 

 cate up to the disc which remains prominent, covered with erect, 

 minute hairs, 45-120 x 12-24/i,. Stipe 3-8 cm. x 1-3 mm., 

 white, equal, strigose at the base. GiUs white, then blackish, 

 adnexed, narrow, 2 mm. wide. Flesh white, ochraceous under 

 the pellicle of the pileus, thin except at the disc. Spores pur- 

 plish-brown in the mass, dark brown under the microscope, 

 oval or oblong elhptical, 12-14 x 6-7/x,; basidia broadly ovate, 

 8-10 [JL in diameter, with 2 sterigmata and 2 spores. Cystidia 

 inflated, ovate, 80-90 x 45-55^. Habitat, wood and dung, at 

 Kew, Aug. -Oct., 1911 and 1916. 



The British specimens found at Kew, on which this descrip- 

 tion is based, had invariably two spores only on each basidium 

 and never three or four. By this character, combined with the 

 deeply sulcate pileus with its prominent disc, the strigose base 

 of the stem, and the ovate cystidia, this species can be readily 

 distinguished. 



3. Coprinus ciirtus Kalchbr. 



Lange, Studies in the Agarics of Denmark, pt. 11, Coprinus, 

 Dansk Bot. Ark., bind 2, no. 3, p. 45, t. i, fig. h. Synonym: 

 Coprinus plicatiloides Buller, in Researches on Fungi, Vol. i, 

 1909, p. 69. 



Pileus 3-8 mm. high when young, 0-5-I-5 cm. broad when 

 expanded and flattened, foxy-red or rufescent to tan colour at 

 first, becoming grey to dark grey, at first oval to cylindrical or 

 elhptical, then expanded and flattened with a strongly de- 

 pressed disc, splitting along the lines of the gills and becoming 

 plicate, bearing a certain number of minute, scattered, flaky, 

 separable, rufescent or whitish scales composed of globose, 

 angular, or elliptical cells, often in chains, 12-30/x in diameter, 

 some brown and some colourless, not ornamented with crystals 

 of calcium oxalate, the pileus also villose or down}' with many 

 colourless hairs, 70-100 x ^fx, enlarged at the apex where 

 minute drops of a clear fluid are exuded under moist condi- 

 tions. Stipe 2-8 cm. x 1-2 msn., white, becoming stained with 

 dull yellow, equal, smooth, hollow. Gills grey, then black, at 

 first attached to the stem by the margin for its entire length, 

 then adnexed and finally free, linear, narrow; margin before 

 autodigestion begins slighth' divided and fimbriate. Flesh 

 white, thin. Spores black in the mass, dark brownish to black 

 under the microscope, elliptical, 9-15 x 6-9jLt. Cj'stidia on the 

 sides of the gills none. Habitat, on horse dung at Kew and 

 Taunton, August and September, 191 1, commonly coming up 

 on horse dung in cultures in glass dishes. 



