THE SOUND MADE BY FUNGUS GUNS 



335 



found some of the subferruginous, ear-shaped fruit-bodies of Otidea 

 leporina (Fig. 164, p. 329) growing on the ground in Ockeridge wood. 

 When she touched them with her hand, they emitted clouds of 

 spores. She stooped down and, on placing her ear against one of 

 them, distinctly heard it puff. Puffing, therefore, can be heard 

 when fruit-bodies are growing under natural conditions in the open. 



On September 5, 1924, in Kew 

 Gardens, I found a cluster of 

 fruit-bodies of Galactinia badia. 

 On ^Jicking a large one and at 

 once placing it against my ear, 

 I heard it puff vigorously. 



Another large Discomycete 

 which I have seen puff vigorously 

 in the open, and have also heard, 

 is Urnula Craterium (Figs. 169 

 and 170). The fruit-bodies of 

 this fungus are black or blackish- 

 brown and they consist of a stem 

 3-4 cm. long and of a cup 3-4 cm. 

 in diameter and 4-6 cm. deep. 

 They come up in the spring on 

 buried or partially buried sticks 

 in woods, and I have met with 

 them under these conditions 

 both in western Ontario and in 

 Manitoba. Some twenty years 

 ago at Kenora on the Lake of the 

 Woods I found a group of mature U. Craterium fruit-bodies and was 

 much impressed by seeing them, as I gathered them, shoot dense 

 clouds of spores out from the mouths of their deep cups. Had I 

 put one of them to my ear, doubtless I should have heard it puff 

 loudly, but at the time I did not think of doing this. On May 8, 

 1933, I gathered a full-grown fruit-body of U. Craterium at Victoria 

 Beach, Lake Winnipeg. On examining it in the laboratory I found 

 that its asci were immature : their ends were already turned up 

 heliotropically toward the mouth of the cup, but the spores had not 



Fig. 



1G9. — Two fruit-bodies of Urnula 

 Craterium growing on sawdust and 

 chips of wood. The mature frviit- 

 bodies of this fungus puff vigorously 

 when touched, and tlie pufKng can 

 readily be heard if it takes place 

 close to the ear. Collected near 

 Ottawa by W. S. Odell. Photo- 

 graphed by the Photographic 

 l^ivision of the Geological Survey 

 of Canada. Natural size. 



