RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



CHAPTER I 



THE CURTUS SUB-TYPE ILLUSTRATED BY 

 COPRINUS CURTUS 



Characters of the Curtus Sub-type— Representative Species — Coprinus curtus : 

 Cultures — Fruit-bodies rendered Sterile by Fumes from Fresh Manure — 

 Synonyms — Taxonomic Description — The Pilear Scales and the Pilocystidia — 

 The Caulocystidia— The Pilear Flesh— The Gills— The Hymenium— The Giant 

 Tramal Cells — The Spores — The Periodicity in Fruit -body Development — The 

 Stipe — The Ripening of the Spores — The Opening of the Pileus — The Discharge 

 of the Spores and the Autodigestion of the Gills — Concluding Remarks 



Characters of the Curtus Sub-type.— The Curtus Sub-type of fruit- 

 body possesses all the essential characters already described ^ for 

 the Inaequi-hymeniif erous or Coprinus Type : ( 1 ) the gills are very 

 thin, (2) the gills are parallel-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 shghtly up- 

 wards, (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. 



The special characters of the Curtus Sub-type which enable 

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

 follows : 



( 1 ) The gills are parallel-sided and at first are connected together 

 around the stipe by means of small flanges which run along their 



^ These Researches, vol. iii, 1924, pp. 118-119. 



VOL. TV. B 



