COPRINUS LAGOPUS 



323 



{d in Figs. 144 and 145). If the gUls are torn apart, one end of each 

 cystidium remains attached to one of the gills, whilst the other 

 becomes free. Very often the free end has attached to it some of 



Fig. 144. — Coprinus lagopus. Transverse section through two gills of an unex- 

 panded fruit-body (c/. Fig. 143), highly magnified. Tlie hymenium consists 

 of : short basidia, s ; long basidia, I ; and paraphyses, p. The subhymenium 

 and trama are but small in amount and not sharply marked oE from one 

 another. The cystidium, c, crosses the interlamellar space, i i, and is attached 

 to the two gills by both its ends. These ends strongly adhere to certain 

 enlarged paraphyses or claspi?ig -cells, cl. Magnification, 293. 



the clasping cells, thus proving how strongly these cells adhere to 

 the cystidial wall. In a young and unexpanded fruit-body, the 

 cystidia, as in Coprinus atramentarnis, act as distance pieces and 

 keep opposing hy menial surfaces apart, thereby allowing the basidia 

 to develop their sterigmata and spores in a free space.^ 



Autodigestion and the Liberation of the Spores.— The stipe of 

 a fruit-body which is about to liberate spores elongates rapidly and, 



1 Cf. p. 275. 



