COPRINUS COMATUS 149 



(4) that the basidia are dimorphic, in my drawings, Plate II, 

 Fig. 12, and Plate III, Figs. 13, 14, 15 and 16, I introduced the long 

 basidia but entirely omitted the short basidia. Short basidia I had 

 seen from time to time ; but, in 1909, I did not think that they were 

 normal constituents of the hymenium and, consequently, left them 

 out. A more careful study of the hymenium of Coprinus comatus 

 has taught me that the short basidia even just exceed the long ones 

 in number. The detailed description of the hymenium given in this 

 Chapter will, I trust, finally settle the question of the nature and 

 general arrangement of the hy menial elements. 



Additional Illustrations of the Fruit-body.— In Volume I of 

 these Researches, a series of illustrations of the fruit-bodies of 

 Coprinus comatus was given in connection with a description of the 

 production and liberation of the spores. In order to supplement 

 that series and to facilitate a comparison between Coprinus comatus 

 and C. sierquilinus, which will be described in the next Chapter, 

 three more illustrations are here provided. 



In Fig. 57 is shown a life-size group of four fruit-bodies which 

 were found coming up on the edge of a path in Queen's Cottage 

 Grounds at Kew, England. The stipes are just beginning to elongate 

 and carry upwards the barrel-shaped pilei. Each pileus is covered 

 by the characteristically white overlapping scales, and still has the 

 future annulus attached to its base. The gills within the pileus are 

 beginning to ripen their spores from below upwards ; but, as yet, 

 spore-discharge has not begun, and not even the lowest portions of 

 the gills have been subjected to the process of autodigestion. 



In Fig. 58 is shown, in its natural size, the upper two-thirds of 

 a fruit-body with the pileus in an advanced stage of autodigestion. 

 The gills have become considerably shortened from below upwards. 

 Their entirely exhausted parts, which are no longer shedding spores 

 and to which the drops are clinging, are to be seen exposed at the 

 revolute rim of the pileus. The dark drops contain dissolved within 

 them a dark-brown pigment and relatively few spores which have 

 found their way into them by accident. The raising up of the 

 exhausted parts of the gills and flesh by the rolling back of the 

 pileus-rim serves to prevent these structures from being a hindrance 

 to the escape of spores which are continuously streaming away from 



