102 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



up their contents to the fruit-body developing on the exterior of 

 the dung-ball. Toward the end of their vegetative career, they 

 tend to form conducting strands, for a few such strands passing 

 from the interior of the dung-ball are attached to the base of the 



Fig. 57. — Photograph taken through the bottom of a glass dish containing horse 

 dung in which the mycelium of Coprinus sterquilinus was growing. The 

 mycelium has produced numerous fruit-body rudiments, one of which (on the 

 extreme right) is developing into a perfect fruit-body. iSTatural size. 



stipe of each fruit-body (Vol. Ill, Fig. 74, p. 185). These internal 

 strands, like those at the surface of the substratum, assist in the 

 mechanical fixation of the fruit-body. 



The Rudiments of Fruit-bodies. — About fourteen days after 

 the spores have been sown in a large crystallising-dish culture, tiny 

 rudiments of fruit-bodies, no larger than a pin's head, begin to 

 appear at numerous points all over the surface of the dung-balls 

 (cf. Fig. 57). In a single culture several hundreds of such rudiments 

 begin their development ; but, in the end, only some five or six of 



