254 THE president's address. 



species is undertaken, the above simple method never fails to 

 supply an abundance of material in every stage of development. 



Fungi growing on dung do not belong especially to any one 

 particular section, — in fact, representatives of almost every order 

 of fungi occur on this substratum. The one feature in common is 

 that the species occurring on dung are among the simplest and 

 most primitive in structure and organisation of their respective 

 families. 



The habit of growing on dung is in many cases an acquired one, 

 as proved by the fact that representatives of many groups of 

 fungi found on dung at the present day existed long before 

 the advent of warm-blooded, herbivorous animals, on the dung of 

 which most coprophilous fungi occur. The reason for this will be 

 explained later on. 



Statistics given elsewhere* show that out of the 757 species of 

 fungi known to grow on dung, 708 kinds occur on the dung of 

 herbivorous animals, 45 species on that of the carnivora, and 4 on 

 dung of reptiles. Seventy-four different fungi have been recorded 

 as occurring on rabbit dung. 



Many kinds of fungi met with not unfrequently on dung grow 

 also on many other substances, more especially on decaying 

 vegetable matter ; and such species are usually dependent on wind 

 for the diffusion of their spores, which are consequently minute 

 and dry, usually forming a powdery mass at maturity. 



On the other hand, many fungi belonging to the group tech- 

 nically known as the Discomycetes, and belonging to such genera 

 as Ascobolus, Saccobolus, Ryparohius, Thelebolus, etc., also several 

 forms of the Phycomycetes, as Filobolus, and certain species of 

 3fitcor, occur, so far as is at present known, only on dung. 



Such fungi, notwithstanding the entire absence of affinity 

 from a systematic standpoint, all agree in the common feature 

 of having their spores more or less enveloped in a subgelatinous 

 or viscid substance, by which they are bound together, thus 

 precluding the possibility of diffusion by means of wind, and 

 necessitating some other special arrangement for securing their 

 being deposited on the matrix suitable for their germination and 

 development. 



A second common feature of agreement among such fungi is 



* "Researches on Coprophilous Fungi," Geo. Massee and E. S. Salmon: 

 "Annals of Botany," 1891, p. 313. 



