CHAPTER XI 



THE MICACEUS SUB-TYPE ILLUSTRATED BY 

 COPRINUS MICACEUS 



Characters of the Micaceus Sub-type — Coprinus micaceus — Historical Remarks — 

 Relations of Coprinus micaceus with its Substratum — General Description of 

 the Fruit-bodies — The Name Micaceus and the Scales on the Pileus — Certain 

 Fruit-bodies Compared— The Structure of the Gills— The Discharge of the 

 Spores— Effect of the Weather on the Fruit-bodies 



Characters of the Micaceus Sub-type. — The Micaceus Sub-type of 

 fruit-body possesses all the essential characters already described 

 for the Inaequi-hymeniiferous or Coprinus Type : (1) the gills are 

 very thin, (2) the gills are subparallel-sided, (3) the gills are not 

 positively geotropic, (4) usually the hymenium on one side of a gill 

 at maturity looks slightly downwards and that on the other side 

 slightly upwards, (5) the spores ripen in succession from below 

 upwards on each gill, (6) the spores are discharged in succession 

 from below upwards on each gill, and (7) autodigestion proceeds 

 from below upwards on each gill and removes those parts of the 

 gills which have become spore-free and which, if they continued in 

 existence, would become mechanical hindrances to the fall of the 

 remaining spores. 



The special characteristics of the Micaceus Sub-type which 

 enable one to differentiate it from the other Coprinus Sub-types are 

 as follows : 



(1) The gills are subparallel-sided and bear large cystidia at 

 their margins. 



(2) Cystidia are present on the faces of the gills and chiefly on 

 those gill-halves which, before the expansion of the pileus, lie nearest 



to the stipe. 



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