Boston Mycological Club. 
Bulletins Nos. 15 and 16. (Issued June, 1901.) 
Hollis Webster, Cor. Sec’y., P. O. Box 21, Cambridge, Mass. 
COPRINUS. 
The prominent generic character is the solution of the gills at maturity 
into a dripping, inky fluid. The spores are black when seen in the mass, 
of some shade of brown when seen by transmitted light. The majority 
of the species grow upon dung or richly manured ground, as the generic 
name implies (from Koirpos, dung.). Most of the species are so unsubstan¬ 
tial as to be valueless for food, but probably none are poisonous, and 
certain of the larger species are among the best of edible fungi; the latter, 
if used for food should be gathered while young, and promptly cooked, 
as they quickly deliquesce. In the following descriptions the term veil 
refers to the universal veil or volva, which envelops the entire plant in 
the young state, and on expansion of the plant by growth remains more 
or less persistently in the form of scurf, scales, or patches on the surface 
of the pileus and stipe ; the use of the term volva is restricted to that 
portion of the volva or universal veil, which sometimes remains after 
rupture sheathing the base of the stipe ; there is no trace of a secondary 
veil in any known species of Coprinus, and therefore a true ring is never 
present on the stipe, the structure so called being the free margin of the 
volva, which is torn away and carried up for some distance on the grow¬ 
ing stipe. The reference given with each species is to the place where the 
original description may be found. Massee’s revision of the genus in 
Annals of Botany, 10 : 123 has been freely consulted, and the classification 
there adopted followed. The following descriptions are of species that 
the writer has seen reported as having been found in the United States. 
Boston, June 10, 1901. Edwin A. Daniels, M. D. 
Section I. Volva distinct, with a free margin. 
C. sterquilinus Fr. Ep. 242. Pileus conic-ovate, then campanulate, 
coarsely sulcate, silvery-gray, disk tawny and covered with squarrose 
squamules, 5-7 cm. high; gills free, purplish-black; spores 18-20 X 11- 
12 jjl; stipe 9-15 cm. high, fibrillose, white, becoming dark-colored when 
bruised, volva adnate, its margin free and sometimes carried up as a ring. 
On dung and manured ground. 
C. stenocoleus Lindbl. in Fr. Mon. 2 : 306. Fr. Icon. 104, f. 1. Pileus, 
except the disk, membranaceous, cylindrical then campanulate, livid-black, 
variegated with white flocci; stipe hollow, slender, base incrassate and 
closely sheathed by a long volva, having its margin free; gills free, 
linear, black. On manured ground. Stipe 4 , -6 / long, i"-2 ,! thick above. 
Pileus at last lacerated or entire, revolute. Spores black, 20-25 X 12-5 H*- 
Section II. Volva absent j ring present (volva really present, but closely 
adtiate, peronate ).— A. Large ; pileus 8 -ij cm. high. 
C. comatus Fr. Ep. 242. Pileus oblong or nearly cylindrical, then cam¬ 
panulate or expanded and split on the margin, whitish, even, then becom¬ 
ing broken up into scattered, more or less reflexed, large torn scales; 
gills slightly adnexed, crowded, white then tinged with red or pink, 
becoming black and dripping an inky fluid; stipe stout, white or whitish, 
volva usually evanescent, its free margin forming a ring which is often 
carried up by the elongating stipe; spores black, 12-14 X 8-10 p.. Pileus 
9-15 cm. high ; stipe 12-20 cm. long. Gregarious on rich soil. One 
of the best of edible fungi. 
C. ovatus Fr. Ep. 242. Pileus about 2' across when expanded, ovate 
