REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 1903 33 
Psilocybe foenisecii (Pers.) Fr. 
HAYMAKHRS PSILOCYBH. MOWERS MUSHROOM 
. PLATE 86, Fic. 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, pruinose at the top, pallid or rufescent; spores brown, 
subelliptic, .0005-.0006 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. When 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 European 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 
