COPRINUS LAGOPUS 



321 



The firm and compact veil covering the top of a very rudi- 

 mentary fruit-body (c/. Fig. 140) doubtless serves to protect the 

 inner tissues of the pileus during their development. A fruit-body 

 rudiment, as it grows in size, becomes negatively geotropic, and 

 the elongation of the stipe then pushes the pileus upwards through 

 crevices in dung-balls, etc. During its upward progress, the tip of 

 the young pileus is shielded and assisted in sliding between ob- 

 stacles by its veil in very much the same manner as, during its 

 downward passage through the soil, the radicle of a seedling is 



B 



^/^ 



^•j». 





:i 



11 ^Vt*«2*'*n 





Fig. 142. — Coprinus lagopus. Study of a gill in surface view. Each of the squares 

 in B, C, and D has a width of 01 mm. A: a, shows size of fruit-bodies 

 used for the investigation ; b, some spores in side view. B, a camera -lucida 

 drawing of the spores only : I, spores of long basidia ; s, spores of short 

 basidia. C, a camera -lucida drawing showing a plan of : the long basidia, I ; 

 the short basidia, s ; and the paraphyses, p. D, semi-diagrammatic drawing 

 showing spores, basidia, and paraphyses in perspective : I, long basidia ; s, 

 short basidia ; p, paraphyses. A, a, natural size. A, b, and B, C, and D, 

 magnification, 293. 



shielded and assisted in sliding between soil particles by its root- 

 cap. The velar cap and the root-cap resemble one another both 

 in their general form and in their slipperiness. When a fruit-body 

 has increased somewhat in size and has emerged into the outer air, 

 the velar cap is of no further use : as we have seen, it then ceases 

 to grow and becomes broken up into delicate fugacious scales. 

 While, therefore, the scales on the mature pileus of Coprinus 

 lago-pus appear to be quite functionless, we must ascribe to the 

 veil, which gives rise to them, the function of protecting the pileus 

 and assisting its movements when the fruit-body is in a very 

 rudimentary condition. 



The Structure of the Gills.— The gills of Coprinus lagopus are 

 parallel-sided (Fig. 143) and are covered by a hymenium consisting 



VOL. III. ^ 



