REPRODUCTION IN COTRINUS RADIATUS. 61 



tliey were throwing out threads. Hedwig made somewhat similar 

 observations on the ring in Agaricus. 



From the condition of the infant pLaiit, as figured on the 

 hymeniura, PI. 56, z, and PI. 58, c, it is easy to trace the 

 yomig fmigus through the various stages of its growth, as seen at 

 PI. 59, where tlie figures are all enlarged 500 diameters, the 

 lower group of cells shows a plant of seven days' growth in the 

 expressed juice of horse-dung. In all these figures it will be seen 

 that crystals and spores are carried up by the cells, and the lower 

 figure conclusively shows that the tirst cells of the new plant are 

 the large ones which belong to the pileus ; indeed, the hairs of the 

 pileus, as here shown, are amongst the earliest cells produced, these 

 hairs and the threads of the mycelium (which is always highly 

 granular near the plant) are almost one and the same in character. 

 In PI. 59 and in PI. 60 the infant fungus resembles a Puff-ball, 

 to which it indeed bears a certain natural relationship. The 

 whole plant in infancy is enveloped in a wrapper of cells, the 

 fructification being entirely concealed within. In the lower figure 

 on PL 59 may be seen two spermatozoids which have burst, and 

 K K K shows the cells of straw. 



When the fungus has made about the number of cells repre- 

 sented on the bottom of PI. 59, the growth cannot be carried any 

 further beneath a covering glass. PI. 60 represents on one side 

 the elevation, and on the other the section of the very smallest 

 infant plant it is possible to see with a lens on the dung. The 

 fungus represented is magnified 200 diameters, and the original 

 was about half the size of a pin's head (see a a a sketch in 

 margin). The nature of the hairy coating, which forms the veil, 

 and the cells which are to form the future gills, are here clearly 

 seen. This figure shows the fungus in its Puff-ball condition at 

 the time when the cells are being actively produced. It contains 

 only a small proportion of the actual cells which go to make up a 

 ■ perfect fungus, and represents probably a full week's growth from 

 the spores. How it is the cells have an inherent property of build- 

 ing themselves up into a particular design, no one knows any more 

 than it is known how the fine spark of life is kept up in these cells 

 from one generation to another. 



The mycelium now grows in a radiate manner from the base of 

 the young plant, just as a germinating seed throws up a plumule 

 and throws down a radicle. This mycelium being the produce of 

 fertilisation is now capable, under certain conditions, of producing 

 new plants on certain spots on the threads. Spores are now unne- 

 cessary, in the same way as fresh seeds are unnecessary where the 

 creeping root-stock of Couch-grass is present. Or the mycelium 

 may go to rest in the form of cords or thick threads, when it is 

 termed Rhizomorpha, or in the form of knots or bulblets, when it is 

 called Sclerotia. A similar state of things is common in many 

 perennial flowering plants, as Convolvulus sepium and Hagittaria 



