214 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



indicate that the cell-sap of the vacuole is exercising a considerable 

 hydrostatic pressure upon the cytoplasm which contains it (c/. 

 Fig. 89, B, h, p. 208). It therefore seems highly probable that 

 the principal factor in causing the flow of the cytoplasm and the 

 nuclei of the basidium-bod}'' into the four spores is the hydrostatic 

 pressure exerted upon them by the cell-sap of the basidium-body 

 vacuole. 



During the development of the fruit-body of any of the Agari- 

 cineae, the chemical substances present in the mycelium are trans- 

 ferred to the stipe, the pileus, the gills, and the spores, where they 

 are made use of in various ways. This transference, no doubt, 

 is a very complex process and involves numerous chemical trans- 

 formations of substances such as proteins, carbohydrates, etc. 

 A complete study of these transformations for any species yet 

 remains to be accomplished. Chemists who desire to study the 

 chemical changes taking place in fruit-bodies ought to bear in mind 

 that the main function of a fruit-body is to produce and liberate 

 hundreds or even thousands of millions of food-laden spores and 

 that, since the spores are liberated in a continuous stream from 

 the under side of the pileus hour after hour often for several days 

 or sometimes weeks in succession, the fruit-body of necessity must 

 become poorer and poorer in food substances. The spores should 

 be collected in the form of a spore-deposit and their contents care- 

 fully analysed. By proceeding in this way, one might determine 

 the amount of the original contents of the mycelium or fruit-body 

 carried off by the spores and, at the same time, throw light upon 

 the fate of such carbohydrates as glycogen, trehalose, mannite, 

 and glucose which are often present in the pileus in considerable 

 quantities. 



A chemical analysis of the fruit-body of Coprinus sterquilinus 

 from the point of view of the production and liberation of spores 

 has not yet been carried out. However, a few observations have 

 been made upon the appearance and disappearance of glycogen, 

 and these may be here recorded. The presence of glycogen was 

 detected with iodine which, as we know from the work of Errera 

 and others, turns glycogen reddish-brown.^ The gills examined 

 ^ Cf. J. Zellner, Chemie der Hoheren Pilze, Leipzig, 1907, p. 115. 



