THE SPHAEROBOLUS GUN 351 



balls (Fig. 166). Miss W. M. Page, in the autumn of 1925, at Oxshott 

 Woods in England, found Sphaerobolus stellatus on rabbit dung. 1 



Dr. Petch, in Ceylon, found S. stellatus on elephant dung ; and 

 he further reports that S. rubidus B. and Br. has been collected 

 twice in Ceylon, once by Thwaites and once by himself, and on each 

 occasion on elephant dung. 2 



Miss Walker's Sphaerobolus stellatus var. giganteus was originally 

 found by Dr. H. B. Brown at Starkville, Mississippi, U.S.A., "evi- 

 dently growing upon half -rotted horse dung." 3 Miss Walker also 

 obtained a strain of S. stellatus from a Carnation bench in a green- 

 house at Lincoln, Nebraska ; and she informed me that it appeared 

 to be " growing upon little sticks or straws which possibly had been 

 brought in with the manure for the bench." 4 The late C. G. Lloyd 5 

 once informed me that Father Langlois, in Louisiana, U.S.A., had 

 collected S. stellatus " on manure," presumably therefore on horse 

 manure. Mr. E. H. Ellis, 6 a member of the British Mycological 

 Society, has found S. stellatus in England twice on horse dung : in 

 1925, in the pine woods at Oxshott (Surrey) ; and, in 1927, on a path 

 through some woods at Mountfield, near Battle (Sussex). 



Rorer, 7 in his list of the fungi of Trinidad, describes Sphaero- 

 bolus stellatus as " a fungus which is found commonly on cow dung." 

 The late Dr. C. H. Kauffman 8 informed me that he found Sphaero- 

 bolus on cow dung in Grant's Pass, Oregon, U.S.A., in December, 

 1925. 



For many years I had known and thought of Sphaerobolus only 

 as a lignicolous fungus ; but, in 1919, having recognised that the 

 characteristics of its gun and projectile resembled those of Ascobolus 

 immersus and of Pilobolus, which are coprophilous fungi par excel- 

 lence, I resolved to find Sphaerobolus on dung for myself, if that were 

 possible. I therefore began to look for Sphaerobolus on horse dung 



1 Winifred M. Page, in litt., 1929. 2 T. Petch, in UtL, 1921. 



3 L. B. Walker, in litt., 1921. 4 Ibid. 



5 C. G. Lloyd, in litt., 1920. 



6 E. H. Ellis, in litt., 1929. Mr. Ellis kindly supplied me with a photograph 

 showing S. stellatus on an Oxshott horse-dung ball. 



7 J. B. Rorer, " A Preliminary List of Trinidad Fungi," Board of Agric. for 

 Trinidad and Tobago, Circ. No. 4, Report of Mycologist for year ending March 31, 

 1911 (Part II), issued Oct. 1911, p. 42. 



8 C. H. Kauffman, personal communication, 1926. 



