VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS 



85 



The range of variation in the size of fruit-bodies of Coprinus 

 lagopus is indicated by the measurements recorded in the adjoining 

 Table. The length of the stipe was measured after the stipe had 

 become fully extended and the diameter of the pileus as soon as 

 the pileus had become expanded and flattened. 



Variations in Size of the Fruit-bodies of Coprinus lagopus. 



The largest fruit-body I have yet seen, No. 1 in the Table, had a 

 stipe 184 mm. long and a pileus 40 mm. wide, and it came up in a 

 pure culture ; while the smallest fruit-body I have yet seen, No. 11 

 in the Table, had a stipe only 1 mm. high and a pileus only about 

 0-75 mm. wide. This dwarf came up in company with other 

 dwarfs a little larger than itself on a horse-dung ball obtained from 

 a road at Winnipeg. Its height was only a one-hundred-and- 

 eighty-fourth part of the height of the largest fruit-body which 

 would be considered by most mycologists as typical for the species. 



The dwarf fruit-bodies of Coprinus lagopus, with stipes only 

 from 1 to 10 mm. high and with very minute pilei, are just as 

 perfect functionally as large fruit-bodies. Their hymenium, it is 

 true, is exceedingly limited in area, and produces only a few 

 hundreds or thousands of spores ; but, as soon as the pileus expands, 

 it liberates these spores in the normal manner. 



When one compares a dwarf fruit-body with one of much larger 

 stature, one notices differences other than that of mere size. In a 



