206 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



produce about 5,000,000,000 spores. 1 Since the entire discharge 

 of the spores from a large pileus usually takes about 48 hours, 

 it seems safe to state that in this case more than 1,000,000 would 

 have been liberated upon the average each minute. One need 

 not therefore be surprised at the rapidity with which a black 



spore - deposit collects 

 upon white paper, Avhen 

 this is placed beneath a 

 fruit-body which has its 

 natural orientation under 

 a bell-jar (Fig. 72). 



My OA\ r n observations 

 seem to point conclu- 

 sively to the fact that 

 the spores of Coprinus 

 comatus, like those of 

 the Mushroom and all 

 other Agaricinese, are dis- 

 tributed by the wind. 

 HoAvever, another, and I 

 believe quite erroneous, 

 explanation of this mat- 

 ter, has found its Avay 

 into botanical literature. 



FIG. 72. The liberation of spores by Coprinus comatus. I fc SCCIUS to have been 



The fruit-body was gathered in a field and then eiio-o-pstpd oricrinflllv bv 



set in a vertical position under a bell-jar. As the su g esl originally Dy 



pileus expanded below, spores began to fall. The Fulton, 2 and IS now given 



black spore-deposit upon the paper around the . . 



base of the stipe was formed in the course of in Various text-books. It 



natural s"e S .' Photographed by P " Grafton " * has been stated that the 



gills turn into an inky 



mass, that the fluid so produced contains the spores, and that 

 insects visit the fruit-bodies, lick up the ink, carry off the spores, 

 and thus spread them from place to place. This seems to me 



^ Chap. V. 



2 T. W. Fulton, "The Dispersal of the Spores of Fungi by the Agency of 

 Insects, with special reference to the Phalloidei," Ann. of Bot., vol. iil, 1889-90, 

 pp. 215-216. I fail to follow Fulton in finding a resemblance between the pilei 

 of Coprini and the capitula of Compositse. 



3 E.g. E. M. Freeman, Minnesota Plant Diseases, 1905, pp. 178-179. 



