BOLBITIUS FLAVIDUS 



67 



reaction of the gills, every part of the hymenium comes to look 

 downwards, as is shown in the cross-section represented in Fig. 32. 

 Further, every part of the hymenium (every square mm.) produces 

 and liberates spores at 

 one and the same time 

 during the whole period 

 of spore-discharge. This 

 aequi-hymeniiEerous char- 

 acter is indicated in Fig. 

 32 by the arrows which 

 show the trajectories of 

 a number of spores which, 

 conceivably, have been 

 shot away from various 

 parts of the hymenium 

 within a single minute. 

 It is therefore clear that 

 the spores on each gill do 

 not ripen and become 

 discharged from below 

 upwards ; nor, during the 

 spore - discharge period, 

 does any autodigestion 

 destroy the gills from be- 

 low upwards. In all these 

 respects, therefore, the 

 fruit-bodies of Bolbitius 

 flavidus resemble those of 

 the Panaeolus and the 

 Psathyrella Sub- types, 

 and differ from those of 



Fig. 32. — Bolbitius flavidxis. Vertical section 

 through pileus showing the thin flesh and 

 wedge-shaped gill-sections. The arrows 

 show the trajectories of the spores which 

 are being shed from all parts of the 

 hymenium. Magnification, 30. 



the Coprinus Sub-types which make up the Inaequi-hymeniiferae. 

 The gills are extremely thin. Near the pUeus-flesh, the long ones 

 only just exceed 0-2 mm. in thickness (Fig. 32), whilst near the free 

 gUl-edges they are only • 1 mm. thick. In the Coprini alone do we 

 meet with thinner gills than these. Now the gills, although wedge- 

 shaped in cross-section and very sensitive to the stimulus of gravity, 



