368 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



at the base of the stipe {cf. Fig. 180, p. 360). As the stipe elongates, 

 the pileus continues its development. The dimorphic basidia, the 

 paraphyses, and the cystidia become differentiated, the cystidia 

 grow in length, and soon the spores appear on each gill from below 

 upwards. As the pileus, in opening out, becomes campanulate, the 

 spores begin to fall down in the interlamellar spaces. With the 

 production of spore-freed gill-surfaces arising from below upwards, 

 autodigestion sets in and the gills are then gradually destroyed from 

 below upwards in the manner which has been described for other 

 Coprini (Figs. 180, p. 360, and 185). The pileus opens out rela- 

 tively slowly, much more slowly than in C. lagopus. 



The whole of a fruit-body (pseudorhiza, stipe, and pileus) is 

 produced at the expense of a mycelium which vegetates deep down 

 in the manure. This mycelium is present in the hard masses of 

 manure, on the surface of which the primordia arise in the first 

 instance, as shown in Fig. 186. We really have an arrangement 

 similar to that already described for CoUybia mdicata and for 

 Mycena galericiUata, which grow on wood beneath the soil. 



The lower end of a pseudorhiza is remarkable for the smallness 

 of its diameter, but it must be remembered that the only function 

 which it has to perform, after it has pushed up the primordium of 

 the pileus through the manure, is that of conduction. There is no 

 need for it to be mechanically strong, as it has no weight to support. 

 Only on nearing the surface of the ground does the pseudorhiza 

 become thickened. There can be little doubt that this thickening 

 is correlated with the demands for mechanical support which must 

 subsequently be made upon the pseudorhiza by the weight of the 

 pileus and stipe. 



From the surface of the pseudorhiza fine hyphae arise which 

 pass out into the substratum and become attached to the manure. 

 It will be remembered that similar hyphae occur on the pseudorhiza 

 of Mycena galericulata. In all probability, these hyphae are used 

 chiefly for fixing the pseudorhiza and thus enabling it to push the 

 primordium at its end upwards with more ease. They may also 

 conduct to the fruit-body a certain amount of water, but they are 

 probably not nutritive in the sense that they collect food materials 

 other than water. There can be but little doubt that the materials 



