THE SPHAEROBOLUS GUN 



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directly above the plat and 1 foot 10 inches above the ground ; 

 (4) two glebal masses on the leaves and one on the inflorescence of a 

 Golden-rod plant (Solidago serotina) which was 1 foot 6 inches 

 distant horizontally from the plat ; and, finally, (5) a number of 

 glebal masses on the stems and leaves of grasses which were growing 



Fig. 171. — Sphaerobolus stellatus and its dispersal. Cattle feeding in open woods 

 and on prairie land in Manitoba swallow discharged glebal masses attached 

 to grass and thus serve as distributors of the fungus. Photograph taken in 

 East Kildonan, Manitoba, by the Manitoba Department of Agriculture. The 

 trees are mostly Elms (Ulmus americana). 



close to the margin of the plat. These observations teach us that 

 the glebal masses of Sphaerobolus can be, and sometimes actually 

 are, shot away in large numbers from dung-plats in pastures on to 

 the surrounding herbage in the same general manner as are the 

 sporangia of Pilobolus. 1 



1 In October, 1924, Dr. Bisby and I again found Sphaerobolus stellatus on old 

 cow-dung plats in the pastures of the Manitoba Agricultural College, but in less 

 abundance than in the previous year. In November, 1928, in the same pastures we 

 failed to find the fungus even in a single plat, but the weather during the preceding 

 summer had been unusually wet and therefore possibly unfavourable to the growth 



