RESEARCHES ON EUNGI 



CHAPTER I 



THE PSATHYRELLA SUB-TYPE ILLUSTRATED BY 

 LEPIOTA CEPAESTIPES 



The Psathyrella Huh-type—Lepiota cepaestipes. General Description— The Spore- 

 discharge Period— The Gills— The Hymenium— Correlation of Facts— The 

 Cheilocystidia— The Scales on the Pileus— Irregularities in the Development 

 of the Basidia — Remarks on Lepiota procera 



The Psathyrella Sub-type.— The Psathyrella Sub-type of fruit-body 

 possesses all the general characters already described for the Aequi- 

 hymeniiferous Type : the gills are wedge-shaped in cross-section 

 and positively geotropic, the hymenium looks more or less down- 

 wards to the earth, and every part of the hymenium (every square 

 mm.) produces and liberates spores during the whole period of 

 spore-discharge. 



The Psathyrella Sub-type of organisation about to be described 

 has been met with so far only in two species, namely, Lepiota 

 cepaestipes and Psathyrella disseminata. Field observations show 

 that the fruit-bodies of both these species open rapidly, shed all 

 their spores in from twelve to twenty hours, and then die down. 

 We may therefore conclude that the fruit-bodies of the Psathyrella 

 Sub-type have a strictly ephemeral existence. It is very important 

 to grasp this fact, for correlated with it are : (1) the light structure 

 of the sporophores, (2) the special structure of the basidia and 

 paraphyses, and (3) the mode of functioning of the hymenium as 

 a whole. 



The ephemeral nature of the fruit-bodies of the Psathyrella Sub- 



VOL. III. 



