CHAPTER IX 



THE TYPES OF FRUIT-BODY MECHANISM IN THE 



AGARICINEAE 



Introduction The Characters of the Aequi-hymeniiferous or Xon-Coprinus Type 

 The Characters of the Inaequi-hymeniiferous or Coprinus Type The Characters 

 of the Sub-types Order of Description of the Sub-types Order of Investigations 



Introduction. In Volume I of this work I distinguished between 

 two general types of fruit-body organisation present in the 

 Agaricineae : the Mushroom type, represented by Psalliota 

 campestris, and the Coprinus type, represented by Coprinus 

 comatus ; and I endeavoured to make clear that both are admir- 

 ably adapted to secure the successful production and liberation 

 of the spores. 1 However, even in 1909, when preparing the first 

 volume for the press, I felt that, before the organisation of 

 hymenomycetous fruit-bodies could be thoroughly understood, it 

 would be necessary to make a much more detailed examination 

 of the arrangements of the elements of the hymenium in space 

 and time than had hitherto been done. During the last thirteen 

 years, I have attempted to secure the knowledge which was 

 lacking, and have been successful far beyond my anticipations. 

 What seemed at first, in the Mushroom type of fruit-body, to be 

 but an irregular crowd of basidia with no very definite arrangement 

 among themselves in regard to relative position and succession 

 in time, has now been found in many species to be a wonderful 

 army marching forward in well-spaced ranks ; whilst a renewed 

 investigation of the Coprinus type of fruit-body has revealed the 

 fact that the basidia are dimorphic, the two kinds being interspersed 

 among one another and packed together so as to form a beautifully 

 efficient mosaic work. These and other facts of hyrnenial organisa- 

 tion will be laid before the reader in this and succeeding Chapters. 



1 Vol. i, 1909, pp. 210-214. 

 236 



