498 



Bulletin i68. 



(38) 



v^l 



cease to grow, though they are firmly entangled with the inner 

 layers. Now the threads underneath and all through the plant, 

 in the gills and in the upper part of the stem grow and elongate 

 rapidly. This pulls on the outer layer tearing it in the first place 

 into small patches and causing them later to be more widely 

 ___ ^^^^ separated on the mature 



I ii^^ ^!W plant. Some of these 



scales remain quite large 

 while others are torn up in- 

 to quite small tufts. 



As the plant ages, the 

 next inner layers of the 

 pileus grow less rapidly, so 

 that the white layer beneath 

 the brown is torn up into an 

 intricate tangle of locks and 

 tufts, or is frazzled into a 

 delicate pile which exists 

 here and there between well 

 formed tufts. While all 

 present the same general 

 characters there is consider- 

 able individual variation as 

 one can see by comparing a 

 number of different plants. 

 Figure 86 shows one of the 

 interesting conditions. 

 There is little of the brown 

 color, and the outer portion 

 of the pileus is torn into 

 long locks, quite evenly dis- 

 tributed and curled up at 

 the ends in an interesting fashion which merits well the term 

 "shaggy." In others the threads are looped up quite regularly 

 into triangular tresses which appear to be knotted at the ends 

 where the tangle of brown threads holds them together as if 

 some fairy had plaited the lock. 



There is one curious feature about the expansion of the pileus 



87. — Coprinus comattis , surface of pileus 

 gathered in loups. {Natural size). 



