COPRINUS COMATUS 



153 



convenient, therefore, from now on, we shall speak of the long 

 basidia as the first generation of basidia and the short basidia as 

 the second generation. It may here be added that the spores on 



P • • • !• 



Fig. 60. — Coprinus comatus. Dimorphism of tlie basidia. A, camera-hicidn 

 sketch of a piece of liymenium O* 15 mm. wide, showing plan of positions 

 of all the spores. B, the same, with the spores of the long basidia shown 

 black and those of the short basidia shaded with lines. C, the spores of 

 the long basidia shown by themselves. D, the spores of the short basidia 

 shown by themselves. Magnification, 293. 



adjacent basidia, including both generations, come to have their 

 spores ripe and ready for discharge at very nearly one and the same 

 moment. 



It is scarcely necessary to state that in Fig. 60, C and D, each 

 set of four spores corresponds to a single basidium immediately 

 subjacent, and that each spore is borne aloft on a sterigma. From 

 a study of the drawings just mentioned and of Fig. 63, it may be 

 concluded : (]) that the basidia of a single generation are set at 



