COPRINUS ATRAMENTARIUS 283 



spaces. Thus violent spore-discharge, here as elsewhere, prevents 

 the adhesive spores from coming into contact with one another or 

 with the gill- surfaces during their fall. 



The zone of spore-discharge, as in Coprinus sterquilirms, is 

 divided into two sub-zones : (1) a higher sub-zone where alone the 

 long basidia are discharging their spores, and (2) a lower sub-zone 

 where alone the short basidia are discharging their spores. The 

 discharge of the spores of the long basidia before those of the short 

 is shown in the zone &1-61 of Fig. 120 (p. 281) and in the zone d of 

 Fig. 122 (p. 287). 



The zone of spore-free surface and the zone of autodigestion (c 

 and d in Fig. 120, p. 281 ; e and/ in Fig. 122, p. 287) are very narrow 

 and are similar to those already described in detail for Coprinus 

 sterquilinus. The zone of the products of autodigestion contains 

 the liquid products resulting from the breaking down of the hymenial, 

 subhymenial, and tramal cells, and occupies the free margin of 

 each gill. In dry weather, the water in the films at the gill-edges 

 evaporates suflficiently rapidly to prevent the accumulation of drops. 

 However, under moist weather conditions, inky drops may come 

 to hang from the margin of the pileus, just as in Coprinus comatus. 

 A photograph of a pileus to the rim of which inky drops are hanging 

 is reproduced in Fig. 121. Inky drops are always formed when a 

 pileus is caused to liberate its spores and undergo autodigestion in 

 a damp-chamber. Under natural conditions, such as those to which 

 the fruit-bodies shown in Fig. 121 were subjected, the dark drops 

 are only to be found at the more or less upturned pileus-rim. Since 

 this rim is composed merely of flesh and of exhausted gill-remains, 

 and therefore does not liberate any spores, it is clear that the drops 

 hanging from it are out of the path of the stream of spores which the 

 wind is carrying away from beneath the pileus. A few spores may 

 be caught in each drop but, under natural conditions, the dark 

 colour of the drops is due, as in Coprinus sterquilinus, to a brown 

 pigment which develops in the products of autodigestion as a result 

 of enzyme action. 



Upon the gills of a large fruit-body of Coprinus atramentarius 

 there are several thousands of millions of spores. A certain small 

 percentage of them, as in Coprinus sterquilinus and all other 



