CHAPTER III 



THE BOLBITIUS SUB-TYPE ILLUSTRATED BY 

 BOLBITIUS FLAVIDUS 



Characters of the Bolbitius Sub-type — Bolhitius flavidus. General Description — 

 The Spore-discharge Period — The Gills — The Hymenium — Correlation of 

 Facts — Bolbitius species B — A Comparison of the Fruit-body Mechanism of 

 Bolbitius and Coprinus 



Characters of the Bolbitius Sub-type. — The Bolbitius Sub-type of 

 fruit-body organisation 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 

 downwards to the earth, and every part of the hymenium produces 

 and liberates spores during the whole period of spore-discharge. 



The Bolbitius Sub-type of organisation has been met with only 

 in the genus Bolbitius. The fruit-bodies of all species of Bolbitius, 

 as is well-known from field observations, are very ephemeral : 

 they open, shed all their spores within about 24 hours, and then 

 die down. Correlated with this ephemeral existence are : (1) the 

 weak structure of each fruit-body as a whole, and (2) the special 

 structure and mode of functioning of the hymenium. The fruit- 

 bodies of the Bolbitius Sub-type, like those of the Psathyrella 

 Sub-type, are very lightly constructed, the economy in building 

 material being evidently related to the brevity of the spore-fall 

 period and to the fact that the fruit-bodies are required to maintain 

 themselves mechanically erect only during a very temporary exist- 

 ence. In their ephemeral nature and lightness of construction, the 

 fruit-bodies of the Bolbitius Sub-type contrast strongly with the 

 more stoutly built and persistent fruit-bodies which are included in 

 the Panaeolus, the Inocybe, and the Armillaria Sub-types. The 



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