PREFACE 



In the second volume of this work, pubhshedin 1922, the Agaricineae 

 were divided into (1) the Aequi-hymeniiferae or Non-Coprinus Type 

 of fruit-body organisation, made up of five Sub-types, and (2) the 

 Inaequi-hymeniiferae or Coprinus Type, made of up six Sub-types ; 

 and the Panaeolus Sub-type was described in detail. In the present 

 volume, eight more of the Sub-types have been described, leaving 

 two, the Plicatilis and the Curtus, for Volume IV. 



The Coprini, or Ink Fungi, are among the most interesting of all 

 Agaricineae, owing to the autodigestion of their gills, the dimorphism, 

 trimorphism, or tetramorphism of their basidia, and the presence in 

 many of them of very large cystidia. Every mycologist knows 

 Coprinus comatus, C. atramentarius , and C. micaceus. I have 

 attempted to show how the fruit-bodies of these and other Coprini, 

 notably C. sterquilinus, carry out their one great function of pro- 

 ducing and liberating spores. 



Chapter XII treats of the bioluminescence of Panus styj^ticus, 

 a fungus which is remarkable in having two physiological forms ; 

 one, occurring in North America, which is luminous ; and the other, 

 occurring in England and probably throughout Europe, which is 

 non-luminous. The emission of light by decaying leaves is recorded 

 for England, Canada, and the United States ; and shadow-photo- 

 graphs, made with the light of the leaves, are reproduced as 

 illustrations. 



Chapter XIII contains a review of our knowledge of the agarics 

 which are parasitic on other agarics, and Chapter XIV an account of 

 some observations, carried out in the open, in mid-winter, upon the 

 nocturnal discharge of spores from the fruit-bodies of Pleurotus 

 ostreatus and Collybia velutipes. 



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