8 4 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



of the number of spores deposited from a single tube of the fruit- 

 body. It was quite easy to cut out a piece of paper bearing a 

 heap of spores of the same size as before. This was then stirred 

 up with 5 cc. of water. As a result of five readings with the 

 counting apparatus, the number of spores was found to be 

 1,770,000, which is unexpectedly near the figure indirectly obtained 

 in the previous calculation. Since the whole fruit-body was some 

 250 sq. cm. in area, the total number of spores produced by it 



FlG. 35. — Polyporus squamosus. Two fruit-bodies grown on a log in an 

 experimental greenhouse. (The early stages of their development are 

 given in Plate V., Figs. 31-34.) A considerable part of the spores has 

 settled upon the log, giving it a white appearance. The S was made 

 in the spore-deposit by rubbing with a finger. About } natural size. 



would be about the magnitude of 11,000,000,000. The fruit-body 

 in question, however, was only one of a group of about ten upon 

 the same tree. The number of spores produced by a single 

 Polyporus squamosus plant growing in a single tree in the course 

 of a year, therefore, may exceed 50,000,000,000, and probably in 

 some instances be not less than 100,000,000,000. 



Dsedalea confragosa. — A fruit-body, about 2 square inches 

 in area, on being revived, 1 was observed to shed a remarkably 

 1 Vide infra, Chap. IX. 



