192 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



which enter into the formation of the collar is 10, whereas the number 

 of gills arriving at the periphery of the pileus is 22. In general, 

 we may say that the total number of gills is slightly larger than 

 double the number of the long gills which form the collar. 



The flanged edges of the gills in an unexpanded barrel-shaped 



Uu. 



lJ_ 



lamv 





SC/my 



Fig. 80. — Coprinus sterquilinus. A, a vertical section through a large 

 pileus which was rapidly expanding and was about to begin to dis- 

 charge its spores. B, a plan of part of the under side of the same 

 pileus, showing : the gills, g ; interlamellar spaces, i ; the stipe, s ; the 

 naked area of the pileus-flesh, free from gills, /' ; and the collar, c, 

 formed by a union of the inner ends of the gills. At the pileus- 

 periphery, p, there are 22 gills, but only 10 extend to the collar. The 

 corrugations of the gills, seen at w, are being straightened out as the 

 pileus expands. Natural size. 



pileus are all locked together so as to make a continuous sheath 

 enclosing the stipe. At first this sheath is quite white ; but, sub- 

 sequently, owing to the development in all its cells of the already- 

 mentioned red cell-sap, it becomes reddish like the other parts of 

 the pileus. It is eventually broken up by the separation of the gills 

 from below upwards and then destroyed by autodigestion from below 

 upwards. If one breaks open a barrel-shaped pileus just before it 

 is about to expand, and if one then examines the sheath in face 



