2 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



inner edges. Each flange is composed of two divergent flaps ; and 

 each flap meets with, and is continuous with, a similar flap belonging 

 to an adjoining gill. The flanges thus come to form a continuous 

 cylinder around the stipe in the unexpanded fruit-body. In 

 possessing this cylinder the Curtus Sub-type resembles the Comatus 

 Sub-type, although in the former the flanges are much smaller 

 and relatively simpler in construction than in the latter. 



(2) Cystidia are entirely absent from the faces of the gills. In 

 this respect the Curtus Sub-type resembles the Comatus Sub-type 

 and differs from the other Coprinus Sub-types. 



(3) The interlamellar spaces between adjacent gills, which are 

 required to render possible the free development of the spores on 

 the hymenium, are secured not by cystidia acting as stays or 

 distance-pieces but, firstly, through the existence of flanges on the 

 gill-edges, secondly, by an appropriate separation of the gills where 

 they adjoin the pileus-flesh and, thirdly, by the gill-plates being 

 very shallow and sufficiently rigid. 



(4) The basidia are dimorphic. They are of two lengths, long 

 and short. In this character there is an agreement with the 

 Comatus, the Atramentarius, and the Lagopus Sub-types, but a 

 difference in respect to the Micaceus and the Plicatihs Sub-types, 

 the former having tetramorphic basidia and the latter dimorphic- 

 trimorphic basidia. 



(5) The fruit-bodies are very small and, at the moment when 

 spore-discharge begins, rapidly open out like a parasol, so that the 

 top of the pileus becomes flattened. In these respects the Curtus 

 Sub-type differs very strikingly from the Comatus Sub-type. 



(6) The pileus-flesh is extremely thin and, from the first, is 

 divided into rays by grooves which are situated above the gills 

 where these are attached to the flesh. As the pileus expands, these 

 grooves open out and thus enable the pileus to change from the 

 campanulate to the discoid form without being torn radially. In 

 these respects the Curtus Sub-type resembles the PHcatilis Sub- 

 type. Grooves, like those of the Curtus Sub-type, are also found 

 in the Micaceus and the Lagopus Sub-types but are not present 

 in the Comatus and the Atramentarius Sub-types. 



(7) As the pileus opens out, the gills become cleft from above 



