COPRINUS LAGOPUS 



317 



instead of in daylight, has, relatively to their length, the narrowest 

 gills so far observed. 



The stipe of Coprimis lagopus is extremely fragile. This is due 

 to the fact that it is a hollow tapering cylinder with a weak and 

 watery wall. The thinness of the stipe- wall relatively to the space 

 enclosed may be readily perceived from an inspection of the fruit- 

 bodies represented in Fig. 138 at I, M, N, O, and P. 



The Scales on the Pileus. — One of the most noteworthy 

 characters of the Coprinus lagopus fruit-body is the delicate scali- 

 ness of the pileus just before and during pilear expansion (Figs. 13U, 



Fig. 130. — Coprimis lagopus. A single fugacious hairy scale removed from a large 

 pileus beginning to expand, mounted in water, and sketclied with a cmnern 

 luc.idn : u, the contracted apical end directed away from the pileus ; h, the 

 broader basal end next to the pileus-flcsh. The size can be measured by the 

 scale. 



132, and 133, pp. 300, 304, and 305). The scales are soft, 

 white, hairy or fibrillose, more or less conical, in large fruit-bodies 

 1-1-5 mm. long, broadest where they are attached to the pileus- 

 flesh, and having a free end projecting into the air (Figs. 139 and 

 141, B, «). In young unexpanded fruit-bodies (Fig. 132, p. 304) 

 they give the pileus a very white and woolly appearance, but in 

 older, expanded pilei they are not nearly so obvious (Figs. 133 and 

 134, pp. 305 and 307). 



In a very small and rudimentary fruit-body of Coprinus lagopus, 

 as soon as, with the help of microtome sections, one can distinguish 

 the primordia of the gills, pileus-flesh, and stipe, it becomes evident 

 that the universal veil covering the pileus is developing in such a 

 way as to produce chains of cells directed away from the pileus- 

 flesh and curved stipewards, each chain being in contact with other 



