THE COPRINUS TYPE OF FRUIT-BODY 215 



dimidiate form corresponding to Lenzites, &c. In ray opinion the 

 explanation of this fact is not that such fruit-bodies have become 

 extinct but that they never existed. 



Massee in his "Revision of the Genus Coprinus" states that 

 " the species of Coprinus differ from the remainder of the Agari- 

 cinese in one important biological feature — the deliquescence of 

 the gills at maturity into a liquid which drops to the ground, 

 carrying the mature spores along with it." This mode of spore- 

 dissemination he describes as " primitive and relatively imperfect," 

 " as compared with the minute wind-borne spores of the remainder 

 of the Agarieinese." l Massee takes this mode of spore-dissemina- 

 tion as important evidence that " in the genus Coprinus we have 

 in reality the remnant of a primitive group from which have 

 descended the entire group of Agaricinea^ having wind-borne 

 spores." Since my own investigations have now shown that the 

 spores of the Coprini are wind-borne, it must be concluded that 

 Massee's argument for the ancestral position of the Coprini is 

 based on an unfortunate misconception of the ecology of Coprinus 

 fruit-bodies. The arrangement for liberating spores into the air 

 by means of "deliquescence," instead of being primitive, appears 

 to be the most highly specialised in the whole group of Agaricineas. 

 The relative antiquity of the genus Coprinus seems to me to be 

 no easy matter to decide. However, at present I fail to find any 

 satisfactory evidence that the genus is to be regarded as closely 

 related to the one from which the other groups of gilled Agarics 

 have arisen. It seems more reasonable to regard it as a specialised 

 offshoot from a more generalised fungus of the Mushroom type. 



1 G. Massee, "A Revision of the Genus Coprinus," Ann. of Bot., vol. x. p. 129 ; 

 also Text-Book of Fungi, London, 1906, p. 364. 



