CHAPTER III 



VARIOUS REMARKS ON THE COPRINI 



Comparative Remarks on the Coprinus and Non-Coprinus Types — Coprinus Ink — 

 The Hyphal String in the Stipe of Coprinus comatus — A Further Remark on 

 the Pileus-flesh of Coprinus comatus — A Giant Fruit-body of Coprinus comatus 

 — Excretion of Drops of Water from a Pileus of Coprinus niveus — Coprinus 

 lagopus growing on Beet Seeds 



Comparative Remarks on the Coprinus and Non-Coprinus Types. — 



The chief points in the mechanism for the production and hbera- 

 tion of spores in the Inaequi-hymeniiferous and Aequi-hymeniiferous 

 Types were set forth in Volumes II and III.^ Now that all the 

 Sub-types have been described it will be convenient to compare 

 the Types from the point of view of their efficiency in the production 

 and liberation of the spores. 



Since the Psathyrella and Bolbitius Sub-types contain but very 

 few species and evidently stand near to certain of the Coprinus 

 Sub-types, in what follows species of the large, important, and 

 more contrasting Panaeolus and Armillaria Sub-types will be chosen 

 to represent the Aequi-hymeniiferous Type. 



There can be no doubt that, in species with spores of about 

 equal size, the number of spores produced per unit area of the 

 hymenium is greater in the Non-Coprinus Type than in the Coprinus 

 Type. This point is illustrated graphically in Fig. 40. In this 

 Figure, A shows a piece of the exhausted hymenium of Stropharia 

 semiglobata and B an equal area of the exhausted hymenium of 

 Coprinus comatus, while C and D show the total number of spores 

 (one for each sterigmatic stump) which were produced by A and B 

 respectively. A count of the spores enables us to conclude that : 

 the number of spores of A : the number of spores of B : : 188 : 68, 



1 These Researches, vol. ii, 1922, pp. 239-241 ; vol. iii, 1924, pp. 118-120. 



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