OF CERTAIN TERMITE NESTS. 233 



■ centimetres high and had turned greenish. The comb was now 

 watered, and on 6th March showed several rigidly branched 

 forms. 



Another example is figured on PL XIV. A. This shows six 

 days' growth, two-fifths natural size, from a comb which had 

 produced an agaric. These commenced to develop on the se- 

 cond day and showed signs of branching on the third. In this 

 case spores were developed on the spreading branches of those 

 which rested on the sides of the bell jar. The conidiophore was 

 more branched, recalling in the regular dichotomous arrange- 

 ment of its widely spreading branches the conidiophore of Pip- 

 tocephalis. The radiating basidia were also more divergent : 

 the end of one branch of a conidiophore is shown in fig. 31 . half 

 the basidia of each group being omitted. 



The pot cultivation from the same comb did not produce any- 

 thing for eight days. Branched stromata then appeared, but 

 they did not grow higher than 1 centimetre. The photo- 

 graph PL XIV. B was taken at the end of fourteen days. The 

 stromata subsequently turned black, and at the end of six weeks 

 decayed. The conidiophore was the same as that of the 

 simple pot-grown form (figs. 25. 26). 



One more example may be cited out of the dozens of culti- 

 vations which have been made. A semi-deserted comb was de- 

 prived of termites, and wetted by plunging it into a bucket of 

 water. In two days loose stromata developed , and on the third 

 day some broadened out into palmate expansions. These 

 are shown on PL XV.: owing to their exceptional thickness, 

 only a few collapsed on removing the bell jar. On the fourth 

 day, the largest was 9 centimetres high, and the expanded 

 portions had split into from three to ten upright branches. 

 On the seventh day several were removed and photographed : 

 many of them had arisen from the lower layers of the comb and 

 had penetrated the upper layers. The broadest in PL XV. is 

 on the right of PL XVI. The black epidermal layer had de- 

 veloped on the lower parts , but was hidden by a white coating 

 of conidia. Apparently this was yet another form, but on the 



