CHAPTER IV 



THE DISCHARGE OF SPORES FROM CERTAIN AGARICINEAE 

 AND POLYPOREAE 



The Brief Spore-fall Period of Coprinus curtus Macroscopic Observations on the 

 Fall of Spores of Armillaria mellea Banker's Observations on Spore-discharge 

 in Hydnum septentrionale The Vernal Spore -fall Period of Fomes fomentarius 

 Perennial Spore-production by One and the Same Tube-layer in Fomes 

 fomentarius The Geotropism of Fomes fomentarius Fruit -bodies The Attach- 

 ment of Fomes fomentarius Fruit-bodies The Spore-fall Period of Fomes 

 igniarius Winter Break in the Spore-fall Period of Daedalea confragosa 

 Solitary and Imbricated Fruit-bodies of Polyporeae, etc. 



The Brief Spore-fall Period of Coprinus curtus. In the first 

 volume of this work J I pointed out that the period of spore- 

 discharge for the fruit-bodies of certain Hymenomycetes was 

 observed to be as follows : Pleurotus ulmarius, 17 days ; Polyporus 

 squamosus, Polystictus versicolor, and Schizophyllum commune, 

 16 days ; Lenzites betulina, 10 days ; Psalliota campestris and 

 Stereum hirsutum, etc., a few days ; and I also said that " smaller 

 species of Coprinus, such as C. plicatilis, shed their spores in a few 

 hours." In what follows I shall supplement this last statement 

 with a series of exact observations made on Coprinus curtus, 

 and I shall show that some of the smaller fruit-bodies of this 

 fungus actually shed all their spores in the course of a few 

 minutes. 



Coprinus curtus is a, small species which, although very common 

 on horse dung both in England and Canada (Fig. 32), appears not 

 to have been observed by Fries. It is described and illustrated 

 in colour in Lange's revision of the genus Coprinus. 2 The Coprinus 



1 Vol. i, 1909, pp. 102-104. 



2 Jakob E. Lange, "Studies in the Agarics of Denmark," Dansk Sotanisk 

 Arkiv udgivet af Dansk Botanisk Forenig, Part II, No. 3, 1915, Plate I, Fig. h, 

 also p. 45. 



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