35o 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



Fig. 



it ; but it usually occurred, in my experience, on pieces of wood in 

 hedge bottoms. I used to find it in quantity when I was hunting 

 for Mycetozoa during the winter months, December- January. 

 It was usually on worked wood — pieces of fencing posts, or railings, 

 or the surface of cut branches — all of which tend to drift into the 

 bottom of a hedge in England." 



Notwithstanding that Sphaerobolus has been most frequently 



found on wood, there is now a consider- 

 able amount of evidence which goes to 

 show that Sphaerobolus is not only 

 lignicolous but also coprophilous. 



The fruit-bodies of Ascobolus immersus x 

 and of Pilobolus 2 are beautifully adapted 

 for securing the dispersal of their spores 

 by herbivorous animals. Now, as will be 

 brought out in detail shortly, the general 

 characteristics of the Sphaerobolus gun and 

 projectile are precisely similar to those of 

 the Ascobolus immersus and the Pilobolus 

 gun and projectile. A perception of 

 this fact led me to enquire whether 

 or not Sphaerobolus is primarily copro- 

 philous and whether or not it finds its 

 way to wood, at least sometimes, through 

 animal agency. In what follows an 

 attempt will be made to answer these questions. 



Some records from mycological literature and some observations 

 of my own which afford evidence that Sphaerobolus is coprophilous 

 and that it can, and often does, vegetate and fruit upon the dung of 

 such various herbivorous animals as the elephant, the horse, the cow, 

 the hare, and the rabbit, will now be given. 



According to Zopf, 3 Sphaerobolus stellatus occurs on the dung of 

 hares and rabbits in Germany ; and he has given us an illustration 

 of its mycelium growing over and connecting several of the tiny dung- 



1 These Researches, Vol. I, 1909, pp. 251-257. 



2 These Researches, in the forthcoming Volume VI. 



3 W. Zopf, Die Pilze, Breslau, 1890, p. 85, Fig. 55. 



166. — Rabbit dung 

 invaded by Sphaero- 

 bolus stellatus. At m 

 mycelial cords ; at a 

 the mycelium is spread- 

 ing in a more fan-like 

 manner over a dung 

 ball ; at the surface of 

 the dung balls numer- 

 ous fruit-bodies are 

 being developed. From 

 Zopf's Die Pilze (1890, 

 p. 85). Natural size. 



