348 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



In Fig. 157, stalkless cystidia are represented at C, G, and H, and 

 stalked cystidia at A, B, and F. When one cuts sections through 

 the gills, some of the cystidia are often separated from the other cells 

 of the hymenium and may then be seen lying isolated in the mounting 

 fluid. The occurrence of such isolated cystidia in artificial pre- 

 parations of Coprinus micaceus and certain related species was 

 probably the fact which gave rise to the view held by Worthington 

 Smith 1 and others that the cystidia of the Coprini drop out of the 



Fig. 156. — -Coprinus micaceus. Cross-section of hymenium showing tetramorphic 

 basidia. S, subhymenium ; H, hymenium. a a, the first-generation basidia 

 (the longest) ; b b, the second -generation basidia (all shorter than a a) ; c c, the 

 third-generation basidia (all shorter than b b) ; d d, the fourth-generation 

 basidia (all shorter than c c and scarcely protuberant) ; p p, paraphyses. 

 Magnification, 77. 



hymenium along with the spores. There is no evidence that the 

 cystidia of the Coprini ever become isolated from the hymenium 

 spontaneously. Under natural conditions their fate is simply that 

 of autodigestion. 



The contents of the cystidia of Coprinus micaceus attracted the 

 attention of de Bary,^ who described and illustrated them in 1866. 

 He pointed out that each cystidium of a half-developed gill encloses 

 a central more or less elongated clump of protoplasm connected by 

 radially branched and anastomosing protoplasmic strands with the 



^ Worthington Smith, " Reproduction in Coprinus radiatus,'" Grevillm, vol. iv, 

 1875, p. 60. Also vide supra, p. 273. 



^ Anton de Bary, Morphologie und Physiologie der Pilze, Flechten und Myzo- 

 myceten, Leipzig, 1866, p. 171. 



