[BULLER & CAMERON] HYMENOMYCETES a7 
registered a temperature of -31° C. After being exposed to this low 
temperature for three hours, the fruit-body was transferred to the 
warm room again; the gills were found to be cleft as a result of freezing; 
but, on thawing, the gill-halves rapidly approximated. For the first 
two hours after thawing no spores were liberated, but at the end of this 
period spores began to be shed in considerable numbers. 
(2) Another fruit-body which was shedding spores, was immersed 
in water, and the containing vessel was set in the open during the whole 
of one night (11-12 January, 1911). The lowest temperature registered 
during this period was -35° C. In the morning the lump of ice con- 
taining the fruit-body was brought into the laboratory, and quickly 
thawed, and the resulting water was rapidly raised to a temperature 
of about + 40°C. The fungus was then removed from the water: it 
commenced to shed spores in less than seven hours. 
Buller’s observations and these two experiments show how highly 
resistent Schizophyllum commune is to very rapid and very considerable 
changes of temperature. We have little doubt, although further experi- 
ment is necessary, that the fungus would, like seeds and the spores of 
Moulds, withstand exposure to the extremely low temperatures of liquid 
air and liquid hydrogen. 
One further observation concerning desiccation may be recorded 
here. In nature the drying of an active fruit-body is of necessity com- 
paratively slow, owing to slowness in changes of weather, and such 
drying, as field and laboratory experiments have shown, is never 
injurious. However, by extremely rapid and thorough artificial drying, 
it is possible to kill an active fungus. This we have proved by taking a 
fruit-body which was shedding spores, placing it while still thoroughly 
moist in a glass tube, sealing the glass tube in contact with a phosphorus 
pentoxide tube to a Topler pump, and drying the fungus in vacuo. The 
pressure of water-vapour was reached in five minutes, and a pressure of 
less than a millimetre of mercury in one and a half hours. The dried 
fungus was removed after six hours, and moistened in the usual way in 
the damp-chamber, but it failed to recover. The gills turned dark 
brown and became putrid without shedding any spores. Such intensely 
rapid drying does not take place in nature, and it is not a matter for 
surprise to find that the fungus cannot withstand it. 
It is possible that the vitality of seeds and Mould spores, and we 
may now add, certain hymenomycetous fruit-bodies, may be retained 
indefinitely, when they are thoroughly dried in vacuo, kept in the dark, 
and protected from exposure to injurious radiations. However, this 
conclusion can only be established by further experiment. It seems to 
us advisable that seeds, spores, and fruit-bodies should be studied, 
which normally retain their vitality, when dried and exposed to the air, 
Sec IV., 1912. 6.. 
