62 EEPRODUCTION IX COPRINUS RADIATUS. 



sagittifolia, and they both at first arise from a seed in the same way 

 As a Mushroom arises from a spore. In Mashroom spawn the 

 grower gets a material similar in nature to the root-stock in Couch- 

 grass. 



PI. 61 and last, represents, enlarged 120 diameters, C. radiatus 

 a few moments before expansion, when nearly all the cells are pre- 

 sent. Most of the cells here shown are, however, only about one- 

 half the size they reach at maturity, and they are not all and every 

 one produced till the exact moment of complete expansion, as I 

 have ascertained by counting the cells of many specimens. This 

 is not to be wondered at, for if the 22,500,000 cells which go to 

 make up one of these minute plants require 14 days for their pro- 

 duction, it follows as a necessity that the cells go on multiplying 

 all the fortnight, night and day, at the rate of 1 ,114 to the 

 minute. It takes about five hours for the spores to be gradually 

 produced all over the hymenium — say from 5 to 10 o'clock in the 

 morning — and as there are upwards of 3,000,000 spores to each 

 plant, they, as a consequence, gradually appear upon the basidia or 

 spore-bearing spicules at the rate of 100,000 every minute. 



No sooner has the plant arrived at perfection than that very 

 moment it begins to perish. I have demonstrated that the cells 

 of the pilous and the hairs which form the veil are the first to 

 appear, and so they are the first to disappear. The fine matted 

 hairs which form the veil in PI. 61, b b b, are all torn asunder 

 during the few moments consumed iu the expansion of the cap, and 

 at the moment of maturity the hairs vanish and the pileus is 

 naked, which nakedness is the first sign of its decay. * When the 

 fragile little fungus has at length produced its fruit, and is pros- 

 trate and dying upon the matrix from which it sprang, then, as can 

 be seen with patience under the microscope, the cystidia produce 

 spermatozoids which ax'e at first passive and then active; these 

 pierce the spores and cause the discharge of the first living cell of 

 the pileus of a new plant. It will be seen from these observations 

 that C. radiatus, though one of the most minute and fugitive of all 

 the Mushroom tribe, is yet as completely perfect in all its jjarts as 

 any of the larger and higher species of Agaricus. It must not be 

 supposed that these observations can be followed without close at- 

 tention and the utmost patience. All 1 he 3,00u,000 spores of the 

 fungus do not grow and make new plants, or the world would soon 

 be covered with C. radiatus. For every spore that is fertilised and 

 grows there are millions which necessarily perish. 



On a dung-heap which will produce G. radiatus, other species, as 

 C. nycthemerus, &c., are sure to appear ; and not only do allied 

 species come up in company with C radiatus, but every interme- 

 diate form between one and the other may be gathered any morn- 

 ing. These latter plants belong to no species described as such, 

 but are natural hybrids, doubtlessly produced by the spermatozoids 

 of one plant piercing the spores of another. Amongst the larger 



