THE SOUND MADE BY FUNGUS GUNS 



341 



During the next eight days, with the exception of the seventh, I 

 tested the fruit-bodies daily and on some days three times a day. 

 They puffed audibly every time I tested them. Altogether, there- 

 fore, the fruit-bodies puffed audibly for a period of nine days. The 

 puffing was heard not only by myself but also by Professor Frank 

 Allen of the Physics Department of the University of Manitoba, 

 by Professor Charles H. O'Donoghue of the Zoological Department, 





Fig. 174. — Bhizma inflata. Large convex inflated chestnut-brown fruit- 

 bodies on t}ie ground above t}ie roots of Coniferae. Photographed at 

 Oxshott, England, by Somerville Hastings. Two-thirds the natural size. 



and by the following members of the Botanical Department : 

 Professor H. F. Roberts, Mr. C. W. Lowe, Miss K. Scott, and Miss 

 I. Mounce. I also succeeded in demonstrating the audibihty of 

 the fruit-bodies to several students and to the members of the 

 Scientific Club of Winnipeg. 



To hear a fruit-body of Rhizina iyijlata puff, it is necessary to 

 place it close against one's ear. I could hear the puffing of a fruit- 

 body very distinctly when the fruit-body was close against my ear, 

 only faintly when the fruit-body was removed to a distance of 

 one inch from my ear, and not at all when the fruit-body was 

 removed to a distance of three inches from my ear. This is easily 



