INTRODUCTION 5 



has taught me that the curves which we shall refer to later on as 

 sporabolas, should have been made to turn more sharply from the 

 horizontal to the vertical direction. This correction is given in 

 Fig. 66 (p. 189). 



The material for the present investigation has included more 

 than fifty species, chiefly belonging to the Agaricinese and Polyporese. 

 Species of Thelephorere and of Hydneae have been used less often. 

 The research has not been extended to the Clavariese, but there 

 seems to be no reason to expect that the mechanism for spore- 

 discharge in this group is different from that in those already 

 named. To what extent my generalisations upon the liberation of 

 spores into the air are applicable to the gelatinous fungi, only further 

 investigations can decide. Spore-discharge was found to take place 

 in the normal manner in Hirneola auricula-judte, but the mode of 

 spore-dispersion is not clear to me in gyrose Tremellineaj. In the 

 light of my observations upon other fruit-bodies, it seems difficult 

 to understand how spores produced on a hymenium which looks 

 upwards can escape into the air. Possibly only those spores are 

 thus set free which are developed on that part of the hymenium 

 which is situated in a vertical or downwardly looking position. 

 Possibly the wind is not the only agent in the dispersion of the 

 spores. This matter certainly requires further elucidation. Un- 

 fortunately, gyrose Tremellinese so far have not been at my disposal. 



The general result of the observations recorded in this book 

 seems to be that of laying emphasis on the fact that the fruit-bodies 

 of Hymenomycetes are highly efficient organs for the production 

 and liberation of spores. In the case of the Coprini, I believe that 

 the old puzzle as to the significance of " deliquescence " has at last 

 been solved. It can be shown, e.g. in Coprinus comatus, that auto- 

 digestion takes place for the purpose of permitting the spores to be 

 liberated into the air, and is correlated with several other structural 

 and developmental features in the fruit-bodies in question. It has 

 become clear to me that, included in the Agaricinese, there are two 

 distinct fruit-body types for the production and liberation of spores 

 — the Mushroom, or Psalliota type, and the Coprinus comatus type. 

 The latter appears to have been evolved from the former, and to be, 

 in some respects at least, superior to it in point of efficiency. 



