CHAPTER VI 



THE INAEQUI-HYMENIIFERAE 



The Establishment of the Genus Coprinus — Chief Characters — Other Characters 

 — Previous Investigations — Critical Remarks on the Greneric Position of Certain 

 Agaricineae — Psathyra urticaecola—Coprimis plicatilis — Falck's Theory of 

 Radiosensitivity in Coprinus 



The Establishment of the Genus Coprinus. — The Inaequi-hymenii- 

 feroiis or Coprinus Type of fruit-body is more highly specialised 

 than the Aequi-hymeniiferous or Non-Coprinus Type from which 

 in all probability it has been evolved. Its most striking charac- 

 teristic is the deliquescence or, as I prefer to call it, the auto- 

 digestion of the gills during the discharge of the spores. This phe- 

 nomenon early attracted the attention of systematic mycologists. 

 In 1801, Persoon, in his Synopsis Fungorum, gathered together all 

 the lamellated fungi exhibiting deliquescence into a section of the 

 genus Agaricus and called this section Coprinus in reference to the 

 fact that many of the species come up on the dung of herbivorous 

 animals. Fries, in his Systema Mycologicum of 1821, retained this 

 arrangement, so that for several decades such a fungus as Coprinus 

 comatus was known to mycologists as Agaricus {Coprinus) comatus. 

 However, Fries, with the publication of his Epicrisis Systematis 

 Mycologici, 1836-1838, raised Persoon's section Coprinus to generic 

 rank, a status which has been rightly maintained by all modern 

 systematists. It thus happens that all the fungi having fruit-bodies 

 of the Inaequi-hymeniiferous or Coprinus Type are included in the 

 single genus Coprinus. 



Chief Characters. — The chief points in connection with the 

 mechanism for the production and liberation of the spores for both 



the Aequi-hymeniiferous and the Inaequi-hymeniiferous Types 



ii8 



