Morphology, 2 1 



the development of colour, for in many of the 

 brilliantly coloured species of Bussula, where a leaf 

 has stuck to the viscid surface of the pileus at an 

 early stage of development, the covered portion 

 remains colourless. 



In many of the gill-bearing fungi, where the tints 

 are purest and most brilliant, tho colours bleach and 

 disappear as the fungus becomes old. The green 

 tints sometimes present in fungi are not due to 

 chlorophyll. The green colour of the wood used for 

 *^Tunbridge ware ^' was at one time supposed to be 

 due to a small fungus, Peziza serwjinosaj growing on 

 the wood, but De Bary considers the question un- 

 decided, and suggests that it ought not be difficult 

 to settle the question by artificial cultivation of the 

 fungus. The use of colour to fungi is not obvious in 

 most cases, and may possibly be the unavoidable 

 result of metabolism and not produced for a specific 

 object. But this explanation, if correct, is not true of 

 all, as in the FhalloideEe, a group including the 

 common stinkhorn. Brilliant colours in combination 

 with a sweet sugary substance, and usually a very 

 powerful odour, serve to attract flies, which are 

 supposed to aid in the dispersion of the spores. 



A very remarkable instance of coloration is seen in 

 many species belonging to the genus Boletus. In 

 Boletus luridus, a species not uncommon in Britain, 

 the tissue of the pileus and stem is yellow in the un- 

 injured state, but the instant it is broken and exposed 

 to the air, assumes a deep indigo-blue colour ; this 

 colour soon fades, and the tissue remains of a dingy 

 greyish-yellow tint. Schonbein's explanation of this 



