462 



COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF FUNGI 



type or, according to the best-known example, as the Psalliota type, and 

 distinguish this as the Inequihymenial or Coprinus type, which should 

 not be confused with the earlier described ontogeny of the Polyporales. 

 In the latter, the hymenophore begins the formation of the basidia before 

 the fructification has attained its final form and before the folds and 

 elevations of the hymenophore are laid down. The trama occasionally 

 continues its growth for months and thus adds new and younger lateral 

 elements to the hymenophore and hymenium. In the Coprinus type, as 

 in the other Agaricales except the Lactariaceae, the hymenium is formed 



Fig. 294. — Coprinus atramentarius. 1. Section of two lamellae with supporting cys- 

 tidia. Autolysis beginning (X 75). Coprinus sterquilinus . 2. Section of two immature 

 lamellae with thickened ends and dimorphous basidia. Cystidia absent (X43). 3. 

 Section of a lamella of mature fructification. Spore liberation and autolysis have begun 

 ( X 120). (After Buller, 1910 and 1915.) 



over the whole hymenophore after the tramal plates have completed 

 their growth. The difference between the Coprinus and Psalliota type, 

 therefore appears only at maturity of the individual basidia in the 

 spore discharge, which in the former takes place in steps from the 

 periphery (Fig. 294, 1 and 3), in the latter evenly over the whole hymenial 

 surface. 



Along this zone of mature basidia in Coprinus, an enzymatic autolysis 

 of the exhausted lamellae proceeds from the edge of the pileus to the stipe. 

 The margin bends outward and upward and the tissue dissolves to an 

 inky liquid which gradually drops from the fructification (Weir, 1911). 

 Probably this peculiar condition is connected with the structure and 

 orientation of the lamellae. While the lamellae in many agarics have a 



