STROPHARIA SEMIGLOBATA 331 



Fig. 114 the lashing of the stipe to the side of a dung-ball for a 

 distance of about 2 cm. by means of mycelial hyphae can be clearly 

 observed. 



The gills of Stropharia semiglobata possess all the characters of 

 the Aequi-hymeniiferous Type, i.e. they are wedge-shaped in cross- 

 section and positively geotropic, so that the hymenium everywhere 

 looks more or less downwards toward the earth ; and every part of 

 the hymenium of each gill actively produces and liberates spores 

 during the whole period of spore-discharge. The gills also exhibit 

 all the characters which have been enumerated for the Panaeolus 

 Sub-type, as is indicated superficially by the mottling, which differs 

 but little from that of Panaeolus campanulatus (Fig. 115, B). 

 Whereas the spores of the Panaeolus are black, those of the 

 Stropharia are purplish -brown. The dark areas of the latter fungus 

 are therefore necessarily not so dark as those of the former. 



Description of the Hymenium in Detail. In Fig. 116 is shown 

 a portion of the mottled surface of a gill actively engaged in 

 producing and liberating spores. In the centre is a white area 

 which, as indicated by the dotted lines and arrows, is enlarging itself 

 centrifugally at the expense of the two dark areas. The two waves 

 of development are proceeding in opposite directions. Only the 

 spores have been drawn : those shown black are pigmented purple- 

 brown, whilst those shown white are very young and possess w r alls 

 which are still colourless. The preparation from which the drawing 

 was made was obtained by removing a gill from a living fruit-body 

 growing on horse dung in the laboratory, laying the gill flat on a 

 glass slide, and covering it with a cover-glass without the use of any 

 mounting fluid. During the few minutes while the drawing was 

 being made with the camera lucida, the basidiuni e collapsed and 

 dragged down its spores on to the hymenium. The spores of 

 d, f, h, and i were also dragged down in a similar manner but have 

 been represented as they were first observed. Under normal 

 conditions there is no doubt that all these spores would have been 

 shot out into an interlamellar space and would have escaped from 

 the fruit-body. At c, when the drawing was begun, two of the 

 four spores had already been discharged and at d one of the spores. 

 From other observations, shortly to be recorded, one may conclude : 



