Fruit-bodies of Coprinus comatus in Laboratory Cultures. 225 
velopment of this fruit-body was quite normal except that the 
pileus became somewhat withered in appearance owing to the 
fact that maggots invaded the culture shortly after the glass 
cover had been removed to allow the fruit-body to develop 
without mechanical hindrance. Two weeks after this first fruit- 
body had shed its spores the mycelium produced three more 
fruit-bodies. Unfortunately, however, owing to the ravages of 
the maggots in the culture medium, these three fruit-bodies 
never fully matured. 
From the facts given above it is evident that a total of four 
fruit-bodies was obtained in each of the two cultures. Thus it 
has been demonstrated that, under suitable conditions, Coprinus 
comatus can be caused to fruit in a perfectly normal manner in 
the laboratory. 
The beaker culture contained six times as much food material 
as the jar culture, and yet the two cultures began to fruit within 
a month of each other, i.e. they were fruiting almost simul- 
taneously. It is also remarkable that, while the two cultures 
were fruiting in the laboratory, scores of wild fruit-bodies of 
Coprinus comatus were coming up just outside in the botanical 
garden. These facts suggest that there may be a periodicity in 
the development of C. comatus comparable with that of C. ster- 
quilinus. With C. sterquilinus, after the sowing of the spores 
on sterilised horse dung, fruit-bodies are produced at the end 
of a month with great regularity, always provided that the 
cultures are kept moist and free from infection. Perhaps with 
C. comatus this necessary period of development is a longer one, 
occupying some nine or ten months instead of one. Whether or 
not it is possible to shorten this developmental period can only 
be decided by further experiment. 
III. SuMMaryY. 
1. Brefeld’s statement that Copyinus comatus fruits readily 
in dung cultures has not been verified; for, when grown upon 
bare horse-dung balls, the mycelium remained sterile. 
2. Eight fruit-bodies of Coprinus comatus have been obtained 
in the laboratory by growing a mycelium in the secondary 
(clamp-connection producing) condition upon a sterilised mix- 
ture of horse dung and sawdust buried beneath a thick layer of 
soil at the bottom of deep culture vessels. 
3. The fruit-bodies raised in the laboratory were of large size, 
were perfectly normal in general appearance, and produced 
spores which germinated readily. 
4. The interval between the inoculation of the culture 
medium with mycelium and the production of fruit-bodies was 
from nine to ten months. 
M.S. 15 
