THE COPRINUS TYPE OF FRUIT-BODY 



201 



comes in contact with the ground. The further destruction of the 

 fruit-body appears to be completed by putrefaction. From the 

 first appearance of a very young fruit-body above the ground up 

 to the giving way of the stipe, the interval was found to be about 

 seven days. 



It sometimes happens that, shortly after autodigestion has 



FIG. 71. Coprinus comatus. Last stages in autodigestion. The fruit-body to the left 

 has lost about three-fourths of its pileus but is still shedding spores. The same 

 fruit-body, twenty-four hours older, is shown on the right. The gills have now 

 practically disappeared and spore-emission has ceased. Photographed by P. Grafton. 

 ^ natural size. 



begun, the free margin of the pileus presents a rayed or ragged 

 appearance. This is due to the fact that, at intervals round the 

 base of the pileus, the lower ends of individual gills have split 

 along their median planes from without inwards, and that the 

 two halves of each gill so divided have been pulled apart laterally 

 (Plate IV., Fig. 23). The fissures seen at the bottom of the pileus 



