340 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



lime. The sparkling of the meal-cells, as well as of the cystidia on 

 the edges and faces of the gills, is simply due to light which strikes 

 them from without and is refracted and reflected to the eye in the 

 same manner as from the minute drops of water one so often sees 

 at the tips of grass leaves on English lawns early in the morning 

 after a dewy night. 



Certain Fruit-bodies Compared. — The chief differences between 

 the fruit-bodies of Coprinus micaceus and those of the species 

 already described, from the point of view of function, are associated 

 with the structure of the gills and the mode of opening of the pilei. 



The gills of Coprinus micaceus resemble those of C. comatus and 

 C. sterquilinus and differ from those of C. atramentarius in that they 

 are relatively thick and rigid and are also subparallel-sided. 



The gUls of Coprinus micaceus differ from those of C. comatus and 

 C. sterquilinus and resemble those of C. atramentarius in that they 

 do not possess conspicuous marginal flanges. 



The gills of Coprinus micaceus resemble those of C. atramentarius 

 and differ from those of C. comatus and C. sterquilinus in that they 

 possess large cystidia on their sides. However, the cystidia of 

 C. micaceus differ from those of C. atramentarius in that they are less 

 numerous, are chiefly confined to the halves of the gills farthest 

 from the pileus-flesh, are attached only to the gills from which they 

 have originated, and act as distance-pieces only during the develop- 

 ment of the basidia and spores and not during spore-discharge. 



The pileus of Coprinus micaceus resembles that of C. comatus and 

 C. sterquilinus and differs from that of C. atramentarius in that, 

 before the process of spore-discharge begins, it opens out sufficiently 

 to effect a wide separation of adjacent gills. In Coprinus atramen- 

 tarius, throughout the spore-fall period, adjacent gills are connected 

 laterally by the interlocking cystidia ; but in Coprinus micaceus, 

 before any spores are liberated, adjacent gills become so far removed 

 from one another that the cystidia can no longer stretch more than 

 a fraction of the way across the interlamellar spaces. In having 

 its interlamellar spaces unbridged by cystidia during the discharge 

 of the spores, C. micaceus resembles C. cotnatus and C. sterquilinus 

 and differs from C. atramentarius. 



The gills of Coprinus micaceus differ from those of C. comatus, 



