TYPES OF AGARICINEAE 243 



my investigations. Following the advice of Polonius : "By 

 indirections find directions out," I therefore left the Mushroom 

 for a time and turned my attention to the Coprini. Here the 

 elements of the hymenium in many species are relatively large 

 and, excluding cystidia which may or may not be present, consist 

 of definite and easily distinguishable fertile basidia and sterile 

 paraphyses. By observing the autodigestion of the gill-edge, 

 I was able to convince myself that the paraphyses in the Coprini 

 are not young basidia and never develop into them, but are 

 destined from the first to remain barren. I then passed on to 

 the study of the fruit-body of Panaeolus campanulatus, which is 

 organised in the same manner as that of Psalliota campestris but 

 which has relatively much larger hymenial elements. The first 

 phenomenon which attracted my attention in this species was the 

 mottling of the gills. Its elucidation led to a complete under- 

 standing of the organisation of the elements of the hymenium. 

 The relations of the basidia to one another in time and space were 

 satisfactorily determined, the existence of paraphyses proved, 

 and a mode of distinguishing the paraphyses from the basidia 

 worked out. For the first time, complete surface views and 

 cross-sections of the hymenium were drawn in which the nature 

 and state of development of every element were recorded. The 

 hymenium of Stropharia semiglobata was found to have a structure 

 and mode of functioning just like that of Panaeolus campanulatus . 

 The hymenium of the Mushroom (Psalliota campestris) was subse- 

 quently re-examined, and it was then easily discovered that its 

 organisation is exactly similar to that of Panaeolus and Stropharia. 

 Further investigations into the structure of the hymenium of 

 species of Collybia, Bolbitius, Galera, Pluteus, etc., led to the 

 recognition of the full list of Sub- types included within the Aequi- 

 hymeniiferous or Non-Coprinus Type. An examination of about 

 thirty species of Coprinus, some twenty of which were grown 

 in the laboratory, revealed the Sub-types included within the 

 Inaequi-hymeniiferous or Coprinus Type. 



We are now in a position to pass on to the study of the organisa- 

 tion of the fruit-body of Panaeolus campanulatus which, in the next 

 Chapter, will serve as an illustration of the Panaeolus Sub-type. 



