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RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



and cow dung in the woods and meadows of central Canada. At 

 first, this effort was all in vain ; but, in 1923, as will now be related, 

 it was crowned with success, a success that was far beyond my 

 expectation. 



On October 16, 1923, in a pasture at the Manitoba Agricultural 

 College (a few miles from Winnipeg) I collected some old horse dung 



Fig. 167. — An old cow-dung plat, obtained in a meadow at the Manitoba Agricultural 

 College, Winnipeg, November 14, 1923, which contained the mycelium of 

 Sphaerobolus stellatus within and concealed rudimentary fruit-bodies of the 

 same fungus in the exterior crevices between its different layers. Seen from 

 above. About one-half natural size. 



bearing fruit-bodies of Stropharia semiglobata, and I took the dung 

 to the laboratory at the University of Manitoba and kept it moist 

 in a covered crystallising dish. After three weeks, to my surprise, 

 there came up on the dung a few fruit-bodies of Sphaerobolus stellatus. 

 Having thus obtained a clue to the occurrence of Sphaerobolus on 

 dung under natural conditions, I asked my colleague Dr. G. R. Bisby, 

 who had made a special study of the fungi in the woods and prairie 

 grounds of the Agricultural College without ever finding Sphaerobo- 

 lus, to accompany me on an excursion into the College pastures, and 



