124 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



the pileus and he makes no reference to the spores, the existence of 

 which upon the gills he probably did not even suspect. 



The spores of the Coprini were discovered in 1729 by the 

 Florentine botanist Micheli who observed them upon the gills with 

 the microscope. 1 In his illustrations he shows them dotted over the 

 surface of the gills, accompanied by numerous cystidia. He thought 

 that the spores were seeds, like those of the higher plants, and he 

 suggested that the cystidia act as mechanical stays for holding the 

 gills apart and thus permitting of the free fall of the spores through 

 the interlamellar spaces.^ This was a shrewd guess, which has been 

 justified by my own researches for certain Coprini, notably Coprinus 

 atrame7itarius.^ Micheli's illustrations prove that he was acquainted 

 with several species of Coprinus and that among them were Coprinus 

 macrorhizus and C. sterquilinus.'^ However, the gradual melting 

 down of the pilei during the discharge of the spores appears to have 

 escaped his notice. 



O. F. Miiller, in 1780, described Coprinus comatus in the Flora 

 Danica. He gave not only some excellent life-size illustrations 

 showing the fruit-bodies in various stages of development including 

 the deliquescence of the gills and the production of inky drops from 

 the revolute pileus-margin, but also a sketch of a surface view of the 

 hymenium as seen with the microscope. In this sketch he shows 

 the spores in groups of four, the basidia beneath them, the sterile 

 paraphyses and, at the edge of the drawing, the sterigmata support- 

 ing the spores.^ No essential point in the structure of the hymenium, 

 as seen in surface view, was missed. However, Miiller does not seem 

 to have understood the interest of his drawing, for, strangely enough, 

 he made no comment upon it : he simpl}' represented what he had 

 seen with the microscope and thereby lost the splendid opportunity 

 of being the first to give an account of the general structure of the 

 hymenium of the Agaricineae. 



1 A. H. R. Buller, " Micheli and the Discovery of Reproduction in Fungi," 

 Presidential Address to Section IV, Roy. Soc. of Canada, Transactions, vol. ix, 

 1915. In this publication I have reproduced in four Plates Micheli's illustrations 

 of spores and spore-bearing organs. 



2 Micheli, Nova Pkmiarum Genera, Florentiae, 1729, p. 133, Tab. 73. 



3 Vide infra. Chap. IX. ^ Micheli, he. cit.. Tab. 80, Figs. 2 and 3. 

 5 O. F. Muller, Florae Danicae Icones, Fasc. XIV, 1780, Tab. 834. 



