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RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



-a 



which would be struck by the spores when they were shot upwards. 

 Then, using the high-power objective of the microscope with 



a magnification of 440 dia- 

 meters, I concentrated my 

 attention for some hours on 

 the largest, most angular, 

 and pinkest of the spores, i.e. 

 the ones which seemed most 

 mature. These, on being dis- 

 charged, instantly stuck to 

 the cover-glass just above the 

 sterigmata upon which they 

 had been developed. I ob- 

 served that every spore which 

 struck the cover-glass target 

 was accompanied by a drop 

 of water, which ran between 

 the under surface of the cover- 

 glass and the spore. Once, 

 by carefully focussing a ripe 

 spore seated upon its sterigma, 

 I observed the excretion of a 

 small drop at the hilum of the 

 spore, saw the drop grow for 

 about 4 seconds to nearly full 

 size (Fig. 7, A), then instantly 

 raised the tube of the micro- 

 scope so as to focus the lower 

 surface of the cover-glass just 

 above the spore, and then had 

 the satisfaction of seeing the 



spore and the drop strike the cover-glass together and remain adher- 

 ing to one another and to the cover-glass (B). Here, therefore, the 

 drop was seen attached to one and the same spore both before and 

 after discharge. Immediately after the spore had struck the target, 

 I focussed the microscope upon the sterigma from which the spore 

 had been shot and found it to be free from any drop. These 



B 



FIG. 7. Diagram to illustrate the method 

 used for observing the discharge of 

 a spore from a gill of Nolanea pascua. 

 A : the basidium shown was in the 

 upward-looking hymenium of a gill 

 contained in a closed compressor 

 cell. The microscopist looked through 

 the cover-glass c in the direction 

 shown by the arrow a and observed 

 the excretion of the drop d at the 

 hilum of the spore s which was destined 

 to be shot in the direction shown by 

 the arrow 6. He then raised the 

 plane of focus to the under surface 

 of the cover-glass c and, within two 

 seconds, as shown in B, saw the spore 

 s with its attached drop d strike and 

 stick to the cover-glass. 



