SPORE-DISCHARGE FROM AGARICINEAE 101 



and myself J from F. applanatus. Similarly, Banker 2 saw spore- 

 clouds coming away from the under side of some large fruit- 

 bodies of Hydnum septentrionale. Hitherto, however, no one 

 appears to have perceived with the naked eye and under natural 

 conditions the escape of the spores from beneath the pilei of any 

 of the Agaricineae. 3 I shall therefore not hesitate to describe 

 my own successful observations upon Armillaria mellea the well- 

 known Honey Fungus. 



During the Worcester Foray of the British Mycological Society, 

 held late in September, 1921, clusters of Armillaria mellea fruit- 

 bodies were frequently found growing on the ground above stumps 

 and buried roots. In one of the woods of Wyre Forest some fruit- 

 bodies of this fungus were protected from the wind owing to the 

 fact that they were half-covered with Brambles, were surrounded 

 by tall Bracken-fern leaves, and grew in a spot that was enclosed 

 by large Oak trees (Fig. 34). The result on still days was that, 

 although many of the spores were doubtless carried away by slight 

 air-currents, vast numbers of them settled in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the pilei, and thus whitened with a spore-deposit the 

 upper surfaces of the adjacent Bramble leaves. 



I had come to the theoretical conclusion that, since Agaricineae, 

 like Polyporeae, shed vast quantities of spores, and since spore- 

 discharge had been seen macroscopically in several large Polyporeae, 

 under favourable conditions one ought to be able to observe with 

 the naked eye the spore-stream passing out from beneath the pilei 

 of large Agaricineae. All that remained was to put the theory to 

 a practical test. The spore-deposits on the Bramble leaves shown 

 in Fig. 34 suggested that Armillaria mellea would be a suitable 

 lamellate species for the first trial. Shortly after leaving the fruit- 

 bodies shown in Fig. 34, I found another cluster of Armillaria 



1 I saw spore-clouds coming away from beneath a large Fames applanatus 

 fruit-body in Kew Gardens during late August and early September, 1921. I was 

 able to show the phenomenon to several observers. 



2 H. J. Banker, vide infra. 



3 Hammer (" A Note on the Discharge of Spores of Pleurotus ostreatus," Torreya. 

 vol. v, 1905, p. 146) saw tiny wreaths of spores ascending to a height of 2-3 feet 

 from a fruit-body of Pleurotus ostreatus, but the fruit-body had been gathered 

 and placed on a table : it was not therefore under natural conditions. 



