336 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



The Horizontal Range of Various Fungus Guns and of Expulsive 

 Fruits. — The following Table gives the approximate horizontal 

 range of certain typical fungus guns as measured by myself. 



The Horizontal Range of Fungus Guns. 



The Sphaerobolus gun, as is evident from a comparison of the 

 data given in the Table, easily outranges that of Ascobolus and of 

 Pleurage and even that of Pilobolus. It is undoubtedly not merely 

 the largest but also the most powerful of all fungus guns. 



The fruits of many Phanerogams have various mechanisms for 

 shooting out their seeds. The Table on p. 337, which is taken 

 from Kerner and Oliver's Natural History of Plants, 1 gives the 

 horizontal range for a few of these fruits. 



As we have seen, Sphaerobolus stellatus shoots out its glebal mass 

 to a distance of about 18-5 feet, or about 5- 75 metres. By reference 

 to the data in the Table on p. 337 it will therefore be evident that 

 Sphaerobolus outranges species of Cardamine, Viola, Dorycnium, 

 and Geranium, but is outranged by species of Lupinus, Acanthus, 

 Hura, and Bauhinia. The outranging fruits, however, are much 



1 A. Kerner von Marilaun, The Natural History of Plants, translated and edited 

 by F. W. Oliver, London, Vol. II, 1895, p. 839. 



