CULTURES OF COPRINUS COMATUS 175 



of the soil in the specimen jar. It developed rapidly into a very 

 large normal fruit-body, possessing all the usual Cofriims comaivs 

 characters (Fig. 67). It elongated its stipe, expanded its pileus, 

 underwent autodigestion and, within a week from the time it 

 was first observed, shed vast numbers of spores. Spores taken 

 from the black spore-deposit were 

 found to germinate readily in potato- 

 agar and somewhat less readily in 

 dung-agar. 



About three weeks after the 

 fruit-body just described had shed 

 its spores, many white mycelial knots 

 appeared on the outer surface of 

 the soil, a few centimetres below the 

 upper surface ; and ten days later 

 three new fruit-bodies, which had 

 developed in tinj'^ crevices beneath 

 the surface of the soil, pushed their 

 way up through the soil into the air. 

 They were creamy-white in colour, 

 somewhat conical in form, and had 

 a smooth, gelatinous, greasy-looking 

 surface. At their base, they were 

 0-5 cm. in diameter. Five days 

 later they were 7 cm. high, and each 

 fruit-body now showed a distinct 

 division into stipe and pileus. The 

 pilei, which were in general cream- 

 coloured but a deep buff at their 



Fig. 68. — A laboratory culture of C'oprinus 

 comatus with a second crop of three 

 fruit-bodies about to expand their pilei. 

 Below, in the jar, the mycelium growing 

 in a sterilised mixture of horse dung 

 and saw-dust. Above, thick layer of 

 black soil. The glass plate, which 

 covered the top, now removed. Inocu- 

 lation with mycelium January 7, 1921. 

 Fruit-bodies photographed in October, 

 1922, by Irene Mounce. Reduced to 

 about J natural size. 



