88 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



Every one knows that certain annual Phanerogams, when grown 

 under very dry conditions, attain a very small height and bulk but 

 that, even in this dwarfed state, they yet succeed in producing a 

 few flowers and seeds. A few seeds, from the point of view of the 

 maintenance of these species, are better than none at all. It seems 

 to me that a similar consideration applies to the dwarf fruit-bodies 

 of Coprinus lagopus. Under certain conditions of drought or 

 competition with neighbouring species, only dwarf fruit-bodies are 

 developed, but these succeed in producing and liberating a small 

 number of spores, which are disseminated by the wind. A few 

 spores, from the point of view of the maintenance of the Coprinus 

 species, are better than none at all and may chance to germinate 

 under favourable conditions. The dwarf fruit-bodies, therefore, 

 ought not to be despised on account of their size. 



Coprinus lagopus is not the only coprophilous species of Coprinus 

 which under unfavourable conditions produces dwarf fruit-bodies, for 

 I have observed dwarfs in both Coprinus ephemerus and in C. curtus. 

 The dwarfs of these two last species sometimes occur along with 

 the dwarfs of C. lagopus on the lower sides of drying dung-masses 

 in fields in England and on exhausted dung in the laboratory at 

 Winnipeg. A well-developed fruit-body of C. ephemerus often has 

 a height of 30 or more mm. and a pileus width of about 10 mm. ; 

 but one of the dwarfs of this species, which I examined at Winnipeg, 

 had a stipe which was only 2 mm. high and 1 mm. thick, and a 

 pileus only 4 mm. in diameter. Furthermore, the pileus possessed 

 only 5 shallow gills with no traces of any others, and the spores 

 produced numbered less than 1,000 ; yet this tiny fruit-body 

 expanded its pileus and doubtless successfully carried out its 

 spore-discharging function. 



The Cultivation of Marasmius oreades for Food. Marasmius 

 oreades, the Fairy-Ring Fungus (Fig. 29, A, B, C ; also Vol. I, 

 Fig. 39, p. 107), is one of the commonest of Hymenomycetes in 

 pastures, on lawns, and in other grassy places. Its small tan- 

 coloured fruit-bodies come up in rings often in large numbers, 

 and are edible. In a warm place they rapidly dry up and, in the 

 desiccated condition, they retain their fitness to be used as food 

 indefinitely. 



