332 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



universally believed that the Hymenomycetes produce spores in the 

 same manner as the Ascomycetes. At length, after the microscope 

 had been considerably improved, Link's error was detected ; and, 

 between 1836 and 1842, Ascherson, Leveille, Berkeley, Corda, and 

 Phoebus raised their voices in chorus announcing the discovery of 

 the true nature of basidia including the formation of the spores on 

 the ends of the sterigmata. The honour of giving the first compre- 

 hensive and accurate account of the structure of the hymenium of the 

 Hymenomycetes rests with Leveille ^ whose classical paper appeared 

 in 1837 ; but, in the same year, Corda ^ independently published a 

 correct description of the structure of the hymenium of Coprinus 

 petasiformis in the first volume of his Icones Furigorum, and his 

 text was accompanied by excellent illustrations of a gill in surface 

 view and in cross-section, showing very clearly the basidia, para- 

 physes, and cystidia, of which the hymenium is made up. Coprinus 

 petasiformis, judging from Corda 's illustrations of the very pro- 

 tuberant basidia and of a clustered group of the fruit-bodies, seems 

 to have been a form of Coprinus micaceus. In having been thus 

 associated with Link's unfortunate error and Corda's success in 

 the first attempts to elucidate the true structure of the hymenium 

 of Hymenomycetes, Coprinus micaceus will always be of particular 

 interest to the student of the history of mycology. 



Relations of Coprinus micaceus with its Substratum. — The 

 relations of Coprinus micaceus with its substratum still require to 

 be worked out. To what extent the fungus is able to destroy wood 

 is not at present known. Usually the fruit-bodies are found coming 

 up on soil or turf or sometimes on sand. I have tried under these 

 circumstances to find the mycelium passing from the base of the 

 stipes to some woody substratum below, but, hitherto, my endeav- 

 ours have not met with complete success. It seems probable that 

 the mycelium, after having invaded its subterranean substratum, 

 sends out hyphae or thin hyphal cords which grow upwards to the 

 surface of the soil and there form the fruit- bodies which appear in 



^ J. H. Leveille, "Recherches sur rHymenium des Champignons," Ann. Sci. 

 Nat., 2 s6r., T. VIII, pp. 321-338. 



2 A. C. I. Corda, Icones Fungorum hucusque cognitorum, Pragae, Bd. I, p. 26, 

 Tab. Vir. 



