OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
157 
are very ephemeral, lasting only a few hours, deliquescing when the sun is up. 
Others may persist for a day or more. As their name indicates, a common 
habitat is dung. As several of our species grow on cow-dung and horse-dung, 
and there were no ruminants or equines in Australia before its colonization, 
these species are evidently introductions from elsewhere. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES. 
With a ring or volva. 
Ring obvious, usually movable on the stem. Pileus 
large, white, at first cylindrical. Spores 10 to 
17 x 6.5 to .11 p 242. Coprinuti comatus. 
Yolva-like ring usually obvious at the base of the 
stem. 
Stem not rooting. White with white fibrils 
or scales. Spores 11 to 15 x 0.5 to 9.5 p. 
On dung 243. C ■ slerquilinus. 
Stem with a long stout tapering root. Whitish, 
less fibrillose. Spores 15 to 21 x 9 to 13 p. 
In grassy fields 244. C. sterquilinus var. 
nulioat/us. 
Ring basal, very fugacious. 
Usually connected with buried wood, caes- 
pitose. Pileus 2 to 3in., lurid fuliginous. 
Spores 9 to .11 x 5 to 7.5 p 245. C. atramentarius. 
Ring sometimes present below the middle. 
In sand. Pileus lfin., becoming convex, 
striate, pale brownish. Stem 14 to bin., 
stout, whitish. Spores 13 to 17 x 7.5 p .. 246. C . arenacolens. 
Without obvious ring or volva. 
Plants medium-sized. Pileus fleshy or subfleshy. 
Densely caespitose at the bases of posts, tree's, 
or near buried wood. Pileus with micaceous 
particles becoming date-brown-fuscous. Spores 
dark bronze-brown, 7.5 to 9 x 5.5 to 7 p . . 247. C. micaceus. 
Plants small. Pileus thin, plicate. 
On dung. 
Medium sized, pure white, mealy. Spores 
black, 1 1 to 18 x 8 to 13 p 248. C. niveus. 
Minute. Conico-cylindrical becoming 
conieo-expanded, double-ribbed. Stem 
white. Spores black, 8.5 to 14.5 x 6.4 
to 8 p 249. C. ephemerus. 
On bare ground, amongst grass, etc. 
Up to nearly tin. Pileus conico- 
cylindrical, finally convex with a pale 
depressed disc and plicate periphery. 
Stem white. Spores dark brown to 
black, 12.5 to 16 x 7 to 10 p . . . . 250. C. pUcatilis. 
Attached to rotting twigs. 
Up to 1 in. Brown disc slightly rounded. 
Gills narrow, purplish brown. Slight 
bulb at base of stem. Spores dark 
fuscous, 7.5 to 11 x 4 to 5 p 251. C, virf/ulfcolen.s. 
I. Gills covered above with a fleshy or membranaceous cuticle, hence the 
pileus does not open into furrows along the gills but becomes torn 
and revolute. 
■ Furnished with a ring arising from the volva; the cuticle torn into scales. 
242. Coprinus comatus (FI. Dan.) Ft. (L„ com&tus, hairy).— “Pileus 1* to 
24m. (4 to 6 cm.), 2 to 6in. (5 to 15 cm.) high, fleshy, cylindrical, then 
campanulate, the continuous cuticle soon separating into adpressed, shaggy scales. 
