32 Colorado Experiment Station 
The Shaggy-Mcine (Coprinus comatus). 
This is the giant of its group, occasionally growing eight 
inches high with the cylindrical pileus two and a half to four inches 
long. It grows in much the same places as the inky-cap mushroom, 
frequently appearing in profusion year after year in the same spot 
in some rich, moist lawn or grassy place where filling or grading 
has been done with fertile soil. It may appear in June, but is apt 
to be more abundant in the rainy part of autumn. The caps, are 
longer than in either of the two preceding species, being nearly 
cylindrical or barrel-shaped when young. Their most noticeable 
feature, however, is the shaggy surface formed by the breaking up 
of the fibrous outer coat into tufts of delicate threads. These tufts 
are usually pointed at the lower part where they begin to separate 
from the cap and are sometimes tipped with brownish or blackish 
pieces, thus making them conspicuous on the white, fibrous layer 
beneath. The top of the cap is usually overlaid with a ragged piece 
of the same color. Although considerable variation in different 
plants may be found, they are so characteristic in appearance as to 
be unmistakable when once identified. As the margin of the cap 
breaks loose from the stem, by the rapid lengthening of the latter, 
it leaves the veil in the form of a narrow ring which unlike that 
of either of the above species, is free and movable on the stem. Soon 
after this occurs, the lower part of the cap and the gills begin to 
darken, the latter at first becoming a pinkish salmon color, gradu¬ 
ally deepening to brownish and then black when the melting process 
begins. At this time, too, the cap gradually expands, assuming 
the shape of a bell, then becoming more flattened with the dissolv¬ 
ing margin dripping with inky juice. At length, only a small por¬ 
tion remains but this, too, soon gives way, leaving the naked stem 
standing a slender monument to its final dissolution. The white 
stem when split lengthwise is seen to be hollow and to contain a 
strand of mycelial fibers extending through it. 
Many Species Omitted. 
As it is impossible in the pages of an ordinary bulletin to de¬ 
scribe and figure more than a small number of the fleshv fungi 
which occur in Colorado, only the more common and easily rec¬ 
ognized kinds have been considered. Many other genera than those 
here treated are represented within our borders and our footlfills 
and mountain forests at times abound in them. For the person who 
desires to know more about these interesting but largely unfamiliar 
plants, the reader will find such information in the following works: 
“Mushrooms, Edible and Otherwise,” M. H. Herd. The Ohio 
Library Co.. Columbus, Ohio. 
