344 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



Fig. 119 (p. 336). The resulting Fig. 122 forms a basis for 

 calculating the percentage of wasted spores. It was found by 

 counting that, on the area of the hymenium under discussion, 'there 

 were 231 wasted spores. But the area contains 2,896 sterigmatic 

 stumps. Since each sterigma must have given rise to a spore, the 

 total number of spores produced by the area must have been 

 about 2,896. From these figures it may be calculated that the 

 wasted spores were just under 8 per cent, of the whole number 

 produced. Some areas of the hymenium, as large as the one 

 investigated, were observed to be much more free from wasted 

 spores, and others less free. Probably, for the whole fruit-body, 

 the percentage of wasted spores was between 7 and 8. 



Possibly, in nature, the number of spores which are wasted 

 because they are not properly liberated is less than that obtained 

 in my investigation in the laboratory. Under a bell- jar the air 

 surrounding a fruit-body grown on moist horse dung tends, especially 

 at night, to become saturated with moisture ; and it is not unlikely 

 that inhibited transpiration is prejudicial to the discharge of spores. 

 It may be that the water-drop defect, 1 which was fully dealt with 

 in connection with Panaeolus campanulatus, becomes augmented 

 under these conditions, with a consequent decrease in the number 

 of spores set free. Investigations upon the number of spores 

 wasted by fruit-bodies of Stropharia semiglobata under natural 

 conditions, however, have not been undertaken. 



The wasted spores are by no means uniform in appearance. 

 Thus in Fig. 122, while most of the spores are pigmented, thirty- 

 two of them, as indicated by the shading, have walls which are 

 either colourless or only partially coloured. There are several 

 heaps of four spores, each heap representing the product of a single 

 basidium. The heaps shown at a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, and i, consist 

 of immature spores, and those shown at j and I of mature spores. 

 Some of the spores, e.g. those at I, are under-sized, whilst others, 

 e.g. three in the middle of the Figure at the top, are much larger 

 than the average. Here, as in other species of Hymenomycetes, one 

 often finds monstrous spores among those which are wasted. From 

 data derived from Fig. 122, one may calculate that the number 

 1 Fig. 104, p. 308. 



