THE SPORES OF OTHER COPRINI 91 



and, in consequence, this fungus succeeded in the competition with 

 the other fungi in the substratum. The mycehum spread super- 

 ficially at the rate of between 0-5 and 1 cm. per diem, but never- 

 theless did not succeed in spreading over the balls rapidly enough 

 to prevent entirely the local development of some other species of 

 Coprini which gave rise to fruit-bodies in the same culture. The 

 difiEerence in the result of adding spores and of adding mycehum 

 to fresh dung-balls goes far to demonstrate the importance of 

 priority of germination in the struggle for the substratum. The 

 chemical and physical battles which are waged as matters of life 

 and death between the numerous contestants in every horse-dung 

 ball deserve much more attention than they have hitherto received, 

 and offer a fine field for future investigation. 



Remarks on the Germination of the Spores of other Coprini. — 

 In the genus Coprinus, germination of the spores in sterilised media 

 has been observed, among others, for the following species : 

 C. sterquihnus, C. lagopus, 



C. comtitus, C. stercorarius, 



C. Rostrupianus, C. ephemerus, 



C. niveus, C. curtus, 



C. macrorhizus, C. plicatilis. 



Up to the present, therefore, there is no reason to suppose that the 

 presence of bacteria is a necessary condition for the germination 

 of the spores of any species of Coprinus. However, whether the 

 metabolic products of bacteria either hinder or help the germination 

 of the spores of any particular species of Coprinus, or do neither, 

 can only be decided by carefully-made comparative experiments. 



