92 . RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



set aside, for, on searching the bed, I first found a few almost normal 

 fruit-bodies and then a series of intermediate fruit-bodies connecting 

 the most normal and most abnormal with one another (Fig. 30). 



Many of the fruit-bodies came up in clusters (Fig. 29, F) which 

 reminded me of the clusters on artificial Mushroom beds. One 

 such cluster from which several large fruit-bodies had been removed 

 weighed 11 oz. and, doubtless, if it had remained intact, it would 

 have weighed upwards of 1 Ib. There were often twelve or more 

 fruit-bodies in a single cluster, and some of the individual fruit- 

 bodies in the clusters were of remarkable size (Fig. 31 ; also Fig. 29, 

 D-G). Some of the pilei were actually 5 inches in diameter and 

 some of the stipes 1 5 inches thick ! One never sees such gigantic 

 fruit-bodies in nature. The stipes of wild fruit-bodies are carti- 

 laginous and hollow and so also were the stipes of the most normal 

 fruit-bodies on the bed, but the very thick stipes of the abnormal 

 fruit-bodies just described were solid to the centre and composed 

 of a uniform, although slightly fibrous, flesh. The gills in the 

 smaller more normal fruit-bodies were fairly well developed but 

 in the abnormally large ones remarkably reduced (Figs. 29, E and 

 30). The abnormally large fruit-bodies with their extraordinarily 

 thick pilei and stipes and their greatly reduced gills certainly afford 

 a curious and striking contrast with the beautifully proportioned 

 fruit-bodies that one finds growing wild in fairy rings. 



In order to find out why the fruit-bodies were appearing in 

 clusters, a cross-section was made through the bed with a spade. 

 The mycelium was then traced in the form of a loose irregular 

 white strand from a cluster at the top of the bed downwards 

 through the bed for a distance of 16-18 inches ; but beyond this 

 depth it could no longer be clearly followed. From these observa- 

 tions I gained the impression that the mycelium had luxuriated 

 in the rich manure deep down in the bed, that it had penetrated 

 slowly and with difficulty through the thick upper layer of the 

 bed, and that, having at last pushed its way to the surface at a 

 few places by means of long loose strands of hyphae, it had spent 

 its accumulated food materials and suppressed reproductive energy 

 in producing large clusters of abnormal fruit-bodies. The hyper- 

 trophy of the pilei and the stipes of the largest fruit-bodies thus 



