60 KEPRODUCTION IN COPR1N0S EADIATUS . 



destroyed either vitality or form, and tliose interested in the 

 subject of spontaneous generation, may possibly read the result of 

 the following experiment with interest. A dozen semi-decayed 

 specimens of C. radiatus, swarming with minute infusoria, were 

 boiled in a test tube for five minutes and then hermetically sealed 

 at the highest point of ebullition. At the end of a month the tube 

 was opened and a drop of its liquid contents at once placed under 

 a cover glass of the microscope for examination. Spores, cells, 

 monads, bacteria, and vibriones were all there, but the latter 

 motionless and apparently dead. In fifteen minutes, however, they 

 showed signs of life, and began to slightly move about, in thirty 

 minutes the movements were decided in nearly every specimen 

 seen, whilst in sixty minutes the infusoria darted about with 

 almost the same energy as they did before they were boiled. For 

 a better appreciation of the exact form and gyrations of the 

 spermatozoids they are shown again at the bottom of PI, 58, 

 enlarged 3,000 diameters. At first it requires long and patient 

 observation to make out the form of these bodies satisfactorily, but 

 when the peculiar shape is once comprehended, thei'e is little 

 difficulty in correctly seeing their characteristic form. The 

 difficulty is something like that experienced by b-eginners in 

 separating very small and close double stars with a telescope ; at 

 first, and sometimes for a long period, only one star can be seen, 

 till quite suddenly tlie two are made out, and they are seen as two 

 ever afterwards. 



It is not uncommon to find the spores of other dung-borne 

 fungi sticking to the specimens of C. radiatus, and it is quite 

 frequent to find not only the spores but the perfect asci of certain 

 species of Ascobolus sticking to the under surface, to which posi- 

 tion they have been projected from the plants of Ascobolus growing 

 on the dung. I have also seen the eggs of various mites, nematoid 

 worms, &c., carried up amongst the cells, which quite accounts 

 for larvaj being found within the substance of apparently sound 

 fungi. 



In the works I am acquainted with there is no mention of the 

 cystidia falling bodily out of the hymenium on to the ground, yet 

 this is the case in several Agarics I have examined, and is so with 

 C. radiutus. The spores naturally fall to the earth, and with 

 them the cystidia, and it is upon the moist earth that fertilisation 

 is generally carried out. All botanists will remember Hofi'mann's 

 observations, where he has indicated the passage of basidia into 

 cystidia, and his remarks on the upper surface of the ring which 

 grows round the middle of the stem in Agaricus muscarius. In 

 this latter position Hoffmann found a quantity of gelatinous knots, 

 from which projected one or more oscillating threads, terminated 

 frequently with a little head, which occasionally becomes detached. 

 My interpretation of these observations is, that Hoffmann lighted 

 upon the fallen cystidia on the upper surface of the ring, where 



