66 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



when seen under the microscope but rusty-brown in deposits formed 

 on the stipe or on white paper. 



The fruit-bodies are found either singly or a few together growing 

 on dead matted grass in pastures in England during June, July, and 

 August. They are very fragile and, after shedding their spores, soon 

 become melted down into a brown fluid. 



The Spore-discharge Period. — The length of the spore-discharge 

 period for Bolhitius flavidus , unfortunately, has not yet been exactly 

 measured, owing to difficulties in obtaining fresh fruit-bodies when 

 it was possible to make the necessary observations. However, 

 there can be no doubt that it is a very short one. A fruit-body was 

 gathered from a field at noon, when the pileus was still in the 

 campanulate condition, just as expansion had begun and before any 

 spores had been liberated, and the base of its stipe was placed in 

 water in a cup. Next morning the pileus was found to have become 

 fully expanded and to have already produced a thick spore-deposit. 

 Later on in the day, at some undetermined time, spore-discharge 

 ceased ; and, by the morning of the thu-d day, the pileus was found 

 to have melted down into a brown and glutinous fluid. These 

 observations, together with others made upon fruit-bodies growing 

 wild, have convinced me that the spore-discharge period is not 

 longer than 24 hours. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the 

 expanded fruit-bodies of the species under discussion have but a 

 very ephemeral existence. With this ephemeral existence is corre- 

 lated the weak and watery structure of the fruit-body as a whole 

 and the peculiar organisation of the hymenium. 



The Gills. — The gills of Bolhitius flavidus are not parallel-sided 

 but acutely wedge-shaped ; and they are also positively geotropic. 

 The geotropism was proved by direct experiment. A young fruit- 

 body was placed in such a position that, during expansion, the 

 top of the pileus, instead of becoming stretched out horizontally, 

 became tilted at an angle of 30° to a horizontal plane. The gills 

 adjusted themselves about their lines of attachment to the pileus- 

 flesh so that they all came to direct themselves exactly downwards 

 toward the earth ; and, in making this adjustment, some of them 

 turned through an angle of 30°. In a normally oriented fruit-body, 

 such as one sees in a field, on account of the shape and geotropic 



