32 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



a cover-glass and had fallen back on to the gill again, the drop was 

 observed to be attached to the upper side of the spore (Fig. 20, D), 

 thus proving that the spore and its drop had travelled through the 

 air together. Coprinus curtus exhibits the same abnormalities in 

 the discharge of the spores as those already described for 

 C. sterquilinus and other Hymenomycetes. 



It is the rule in Hymenomycetes that, when a spore has been 

 discharged, the end of the sterigma concerned does not bear a drop. 

 However, it was observed in Coprinus curtus that sometimes a 

 sterigma, after shooting away its spore and the drop excreted at 

 the spore-hilum, excreted at its apex a second drop of small size 

 (Fig. 20, E and F) ; and the same phenomenon has been detected in 

 C. Rostrupianus. This somewhat rare abnormality must be taken 

 into consideration in any attempt to explain the spore-discharge 



mechanism. 



Concluding remarks. — Coprinus curtus growing wild is one of the 

 smallest of the Coprini, and yet a detailed examination of the fruit- 

 bodies has shown that the mechanism for the production and 

 liberation of its spores is truly inaequi-hymeniiferous and in many 

 details resembles that of large species such as C. comatus and 

 C. sterquilinus. It may be that the fruit-body of the original 

 ancestral Coprinus which became evolved from one of the Aequi- 

 hymeniiferse far back in geological history was of medium size and 

 that, relatively thereto, the fruit-bodies of C. comatus, C. sterquilinus, 

 C atramentarius and C. picaceus are very large, while those of 

 C. curtus and C. ephemerus are very small. 



