COPRINUS STERQUILINUS 



245 



The Rate of Discharge of the Four Spores for each of Five Basidia of 



Coprinus sterquilinus 



The order in which the five basidia began to shed their spores 

 is indicated by their alphabetical arrangement. The long basidium 

 A first discharged all its four spores. After the last spore had 

 gone there was a pause for 45 seconds. Then basidium B, one 

 of the lower short basidia, shot away its first spore. After 32 

 more seconds had passed the other lower short basidium, C, shot 

 away its first spore. Thus the two lower short basidia, B and C, 

 waited 45 and 77 seconds respectively after the long basidium 

 above them had shed its last spore before shooting away their 

 first spores. Owing to this delay, all the spores of these two 

 short basidia were shot away without collidhig with any of 

 the spores of the long basidium. Whilst the two lower short 

 basidia were shedding their spores, another long basidium above 

 the two upper short basidia, which we will call F, was discharging 

 its spores. Thus by the time that the two lower short basidia had 

 completed the discharge of their spores, spores of the long basidium 

 F were no longer overlapping the spores of the two upper short 

 basidia. The two upper short basidia D and E shot away their 

 first spores 10 and 85 seconds respectively after the last spore of 

 the two lower short basidia had been discharged. If the moment 

 of discharge of the first spore of the central long basidium A be 

 taken as the zero of a time-scale, then the times of discharge of all 

 the twenty spores of the five basidia, A to E, are as indicated in the 

 following Table. 



