CHAPTER XX 



THE DISPERSION OF THE SPORES AFTER LIBERATION FROM 

 THE FRUIT-BODIES— FALCK'S THEORY 



We have now gained some insight into the arrangements whereby 

 spores are enabled to escape from hymenomycetous fruit-bodies. 

 It still remains, however, to discuss the dispersion of the spores 

 in the outer air. Doubtless, in the narrow, blindly-ending tubes 

 of the Polyporere, and between the closely-packed gills of the 

 Agaricinese, the air is extremely still, so that the spores fall 

 approximately vertically downwards in it, in the manner already 

 discussed in Chapter XVII. If the air between the pilei and the 

 ground were also quite still, the spores would continue falling in 

 their vertical paths after emerging from the fruit-bodies, and 

 would strike the ground immediately below the basidia from which 

 they had been liberated. It is of interest to calculate the length 

 of time that would be required for the spores to reach the ground 

 in still air. The results of a few such calculations, together with 

 the data on which they are based, are given in the following 

 Table :— 



1 Estimated from the data given in Chaps. XV. and XVI. 



216 



