SPORE-DISCHARGE FROM AGARICINEAE 



103 



described by Fries from a specimen found in Sweden ; and I myself 

 have seen it at Winnipeg growing upon Acer Negundo, the Manitoba 

 Maple (for illustrations, vide infra). 1 At Greencastle, Indiana, 

 upon a living Beech tree, Banker found a mass of imbricated fruit- 

 bodies of this species which was 30 cm. long and 45 cm. wide and 

 which, after being damaged with the loss of a portion of its 

 substance, weighed 35 Ibs. 2 



FIG. 35. A cluster of Armillaria mellea fruit-bodies, of which the'escaping 

 spore-clouds were seen with the naked eye. The whiteness of the 

 tops of the pilei and of the ground around the cluster was due chiefly 

 to the presence of a thin spore-deposit formed by the settling of a 

 certain number of the spores. Photographed in Wyre Forest by 

 Somerville Hastings. About -J natural size. 



Banker's remarks 3 concerning the spore-discharge of the fungus- 

 mass just described are as follows. " The spores are produced 

 in enormous numbers, but seemingly for only a few days. On my 

 first visit to the plant, October 17, no spore-fall was observed, but 

 the matter was not especially tested. Two days later, on visiting 



1 Chapter VI, Figs. 52, 53, and 54. 



2 H. J. Banker, " Steccherinum septentrionale (Fr.) Banker in Indiana," Proc. 

 Indiana Acad. of Sci., 1910, p. 213. I have estimated the width from Banker's 

 photograph ; the length and weight are as given by him. 



3 Ibid., p. 216. 



