288 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



hyphae. Both Miss Walker and I have obtained Sphaerobolus in 



pure culture by the method just described. 



Miss Walker transferred the mycelium from an agar plate to 



flasks containing 

 sterilised agar media, 

 corn-meal mush, and 

 partially rotted 

 Willow wood, and she 

 placed the cultures in 

 the light. The Willow- 

 wood cultures within 

 a few weeks fruited 

 abundantly, but the 

 corn-meal and agar 

 cultures never fruited. 

 I, too, have not been 

 able to obtain fruit- 

 bodies on a malt-agar 

 medium. After various 

 trials, Miss Walker ob- 

 tained the best results 

 with the following 

 media : Willow wood, 

 half -rotted horse dung, 

 sawdust (probably 

 Willow or Ash), and 

 mixtures of horse 

 dung and sawdust. 



I have cultivated 

 the mycelium with 

 success on sterilised 

 horse dung, but my 



Fig. 142. — Sphaerobolus stellatus. A culture made by 

 Leva B. Walker, on horse dung, removed from a 

 flask. A large number of sporocarps have come 

 into existence in the white sheet of mycelium 

 and some of them are now open and about to 

 discharge their glebal balls. The projectiles 

 were shot upwards to a maximum height of 

 14 feet. Photograph made in the early morning 

 at the University of Nebraska. Magnification,! • 5. 



investigations have 

 mostly been made on wild fruit-bodies occurring on boards and on cow 

 dung. When cow dung permeated with the mycelium was brought 

 into the laboratory and kept moist, some scores of Sphaerobolus fruit- 

 bodies appeared on its surface within a few days (Fig. 164, p. 332). 



