134 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



fir, 



me that the numbers of spores coming away from the fruit-body 

 each day was enormous. Near the fruit-body the bark of the 

 tree and the leaves on the ground beneath had become coated with 



a brown layer of 

 spores ; but direct 

 inspection of the 

 escaping spore - 

 clouds indicated 

 that this spore- 

 deposit only repre- 

 sented a very small 

 fraction of the 

 total number of 

 spores actually 

 produced. On the 

 other side of the 

 Beech a fruit-body 

 was found roofing 

 over a long narrow 

 radial hole in the 

 tree-trunk (cf. Fig. 

 50). From this 

 ; !j| hole the spores 

 could not so easily 

 escape owing to its 

 form and the 

 smallness of the 

 opening. Hence 



FIG. 50. Fomes applanatus. A fruit-body with about 

 nine annual hymenial tube-layers, and there- 

 fore about nine years old, roofing over a hole in the 

 base of a tree. On the floor of such a hole the 

 spores often accumulate as a thick brown layer. 

 Photographed in Mulgrave Woods, Yorkshire, by they had aCGUmu- 

 A. E. Peck. About natural size. 



lated beneath the 



pileus. The brown spore-deposit there present was so thick that 

 I had no difficulty in filling a wooden match-box with it. When 

 full, the match-box doubtless contained many thousands of 

 millions of spores. 



A Comparison of the Spore-fall Period of Certain Hymeno- 

 mycetes. The length of the spore-fall period for a number of 

 Hymenomycetes, together with indications as to the mechanical 



