53 

 REPRODUCTION IN COPRINUS RADIATUS. 



By WORTHINGTON G. SlIITH, F.L.S. 



Plates 54 to 61.* 



For the purpose of minute research into the vital phenomena of 

 the Mushroom tribe, Coprinus radiattts, Fr., possesses many advan- 

 tages over the other species of the large order to which it belongs. 

 The first great advantage peculiar to C. radiatus is that it grows 

 readily and abundantly on dung heaps from April to December, and 

 it comes up equally well in town and country. The second point in 

 its favour is that it is so small and transparent that every part can 

 be quickly examined, and an entire plant kept under the covering 

 glass of the microscope. The third advantage found in C. radiatus 

 rests in the fact of its whole life being so exceedingly short that its 

 entire vital functions are performed in a few days. Having these 

 points in view, I have, during the whole of the present summer 

 and autumn kept up a large bed of fresh horse-dung in my garden, 

 and from this bed I have naiTowly watched the growth of many 

 generations of the plant I am about to describe. 



A complaint is often made by persons unused to the microscope, 

 and to the appearances of objects as seen by its aid, that it is im- 

 possible to see the real objects as they are represented in drawings. 

 To a certain extent this is borne out by facts, for a drawing is never 

 meant to represent what may be accidentally seen at one sitting, 

 but is designed as a summing-up of all that has been seen during 

 many hundreds of sittings. Any one looking for the first time 

 through a good telescope at Jupiter's moons, JSaturn's rings, or the 

 planet Mars, might be a little disappointed in the apparent small- 

 iiess and lack of strongly marked outlines in the objects seen ; but 

 this does not detract from the correctness of astronomical diagrams, 

 which are only matured after many patient observations. No one 

 expects to see the solar system as shown in a model, or the country 

 as seen on a map. 



It may reasonably be premised that the facts observed in 

 connection with the life history of Coprinus radiatus will more 

 or less apply to all the other species belonging to the Mush- 

 room tribe ; but it would be impossible to make the observa- 

 tions here recorded on the more fleshy species, because, instead 

 of days, these latter plai\ts take months to mature. In C. 

 radiatus genei-ation after generation keeps springing up in almost 

 daily succession, but in the more fleshy species, exclusive of 

 Coprinus and Bolbitius, I am convinced there is, as a rule, but one 

 generation in thfe year. The Agarics of the autumn spring up from 

 the mycelium foi'med during the fall of the previous year, and this 



* Reprinted, with tbe use of the illustrations by kind permission of the Pro- 

 prietors, from tht Gardener's Chronicle. 



6 



