i6o 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



through part of a gill of Coprinus comatus is shown in Fig. 63. It is 

 supposed that the spores are all black and therefore almost ripe 

 and ready for discharge. The basidia of the first generation are 



Fig. 63. — Coprinus comatus. Dimorpliism of the basidia. A cross- 

 section through part of a gill shortly before the beginning of spore- 

 discharge. The long basidia, I, and short basidia, s, more or less 

 alternate with one another, and are crowded together so that the 

 spores of the former often overtop the spores of the latter, e.g. at o. 

 The spores of two adjacent basidia are prevented from touching one 

 another owing to the differential protuberancy of the basidia and the 

 presence of the paraphyses, p. The loose texture of the trama and 

 subhymenium is also exhibited. Magnification, 293. 



markedly protuberant. Their spores are all about the same distance 

 from the general upper surface of the paraphyses and so far above 

 the spores of the second-generation basidia that there is no danger 

 of contact. The basidia of the second generation, which are slightly 

 more numerous than those of the first, are practically non- 

 protuberant : the tops of their bodies are on a level with the outer 

 walls of the paraphyses. Between the basidia are the paraphyses 



