CHAPTER II 



THE PLICATILIS SUB-TYPE ILLUSTRATED BY 

 COPRINUS PLICATILIS 



Characters of the Plicatilis Sub-type — Representative Species — Coprmus plicatilis 

 — Geographical Distribution — Relations with its Substratum — Cultures — The 

 Fruit-bodies — A Synonym : Coprinus hemerdbius — The Pileus — The Gills — 

 The Hymenium— The Spores— The Stipe— The Periodicity in Fruit-body 

 Development and Time of Spore-discharge — The Ripening and Discharge of 

 the Spores and the Absence of Autodigestion — The Generic Position of Coprinus 

 plicatilis — The Absence of Autodigestion and its Significance — Coprinus 

 plicatilis and Coprinus longipes — A Taxonomic Description of Coprinus plicatilis 



Characters of the Plicatilis Sub-type. — The Plicatilis Sub -type of 

 fruit-body possesses all the essential characters already described 

 for the Inaequi-hymeniiferous or Coprinus Type except one : 

 (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 slightly upwards, (5) the spores ripen in succession from 

 below upwards on each gill, (6) the spores are discharged in suc- 

 cession from below upwards on each gill, but (7), contrary to what 

 we find in all the other Inaequi-hymeniiferous Sub-types, auto- 

 digestion does not proceed from below upwards on each gill. 



The special characters of the Phcatilis Sub-type, which enable 

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

 follows : 



(1) The gills are parallel-sided and do not possess flanges on 



their margins. 



(2) Cystidia are present on the faces of the gills. 



(3) The cystidia, in the unexpanded fruit-body, are not attached 

 by both ends to opposing gills. Some of them bridge the inter- 

 lamellar spaces, but others project freely into them as pegs. The 



VOL. IV. 33 ° 



