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RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



of the gill-edges is Olustrated in Fig. 145 at ch. When the pileus 

 begins to expand, the cheilocystidia of adjacent gills separate from 

 one another ; and, when autodigestion of the gills commences, the 

 cheilocystidia are the first cells to be destroyed. 



The discharge of the spores from below upwards on each gill 

 and the autodigestion of the parts of the gills which have become 

 spore-free take place as in Coprinus atramentarius (Fig. 138, H, I, J, 

 P, p. 316). Here, too, the cystidia on each gill become autodigested 

 in succession from below upwards in advance of the basidia and 



B 



Fig. 147. — Coprinus lagopus. A, a small fruit-body toward the end of its spore - 

 fall period. The expanded pileus is ragged at tlie edge owing to autodigestion, 

 but still bears some of its characteristic fugacious fibrous scales. B, an expanded 

 pileus of considerable size, shortly after the beginning of the spore-fall period, 

 seen from below ; shown to demonstrate that in C. lagopus, during the spore-fall 

 period, adjacent gills are widely separated and not connected by bridging 

 cystidia. The white peripheral zone is white owing to the loss of the black 

 spores through spore-discharge which is proceeding centripetally. Winnipeg 

 materiaL Natural size. 



paraphyses by which they are immediately surrounded, so that the 

 cystidia are prevented from becoming obstacles to the fall of 

 spores shot outwards from the hymenium.i The reader who desires 

 to visualise the microscopic appearance of a gill-edge of Coprinus 

 lagopus during the discharge of the spores should examine Fig. 120 

 (p. 281) which, although drawn for C. atramentarius, would serve, 

 with a few changes in the size of the elements, for C. lagopus. 



At B in Fig. 147 is a photograph of the under side of a pileus 

 shortly after the beginning of spore-discharge. Here the edge of the 

 pileus is white, owing to the loss of the black spores which have been 

 shot away from the basidia. Evidently, spore-discharge (indicated 

 by the whitening of the hymenium) is progressing centripetally 



1 CJ. pp. 285-286. 



