CHAPTER VII 



THE COMATUS SUB-TYPE ILLUSTRATED BY 

 COPRINUS COMATUS 



Characters of the Comatus Sub-type — Representative Species — Differences between 

 Coprinus comatus and Coprinus sterquilinns — Coprinus comutns — Additional 

 Illustrations of the Fruit-body — Structure of the Mature Hymenium. Basidial 

 Dimorphism and its Significance. The Functions of the Paraphyses — Tramal 

 Capillarity and the Fate of the Fluid liberated by Autodigestion — Coprinus 

 comaius Parasitised by Stropharia epimyces — The Production of Fruit-bodies 

 in the Laboratory 



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

 of fruit-body possesses all the essential characters already described 

 for the Inaequi-hymeniiferous or Coprinus Type : (1) the gills are 

 very thin, (2) the gills are not wedge-shaped but on the whole sub- 

 parallel-sided, (3) the gills are not positively geotropic, (4) usually 

 the hymenium on one side of a gill at maturity looks slightly down- 

 wards and that on the other side slightly upwards, (5) the spores 

 ripen in succession from below upwards on each gill, (6) the spores 

 are discharged in succession from below upwards on each gill, and 

 (7) autodigestion proceeds from below upwards on each gill and 

 removes those parts of the gills which have become spore-free and 

 M'hich, if they continued in existence, would become mechanical 

 hindrances to the fall of the remaining spores. 



The special characters of the Comatus Sub-type, which enable 

 one to differentiate it from the other Coprinus Sub-types, are as 

 follows : 



(1) The gills are not parallel-sided but subparallel-sided and 

 flanged. The two sides of each gill very slightly converge from the 

 pileus-flesh toward the free gill-edge. The edge itself is swollen 

 into a flange which, during the development of the spores, is in 



144 



