CHAPTER XII 



ANELLARIA SEPARATA 



General Remarks The Production and Liberation of Spores A Photograph of 

 the Hymenium 



General Remarks. Anellaria separata, like Panaeolus campanu- 

 latus and Stropharia semiglobata, is one of the best known of copro- 

 philous fungi. It commonly occurs in England on horse dung or 

 cow dung in pastures in the manner shown in Fig. 123, and I 

 have also found it coming up spontaneously on horse dung brought 

 into my laboratory from the streets of Winnipeg in winter. 



Some cow dung, obtained in South Wales, was dried by Miss 

 E. M. Wakefield and sent to me at Winnipeg. Four months after 

 being dried, it was moistened and placed in a damp chamber. 

 After this, in the course of a few weeks, it gave rise to fruit-bodies 

 of Anellaria separata (Fig. 125), from which fact we may draw the 

 conclusion that the mycelium can retain its vitality in the desic- 

 cated condition for a period of at least four months. In nature, 

 during dry spells of weather in summer, it not infrequently happens 

 that dung-masses are baked to dryness by the sun's heat. It is 

 evident, from the observations just described, that such drying 

 does not necessarily impair the vitality of the mycelium of Anellaria 

 separata with which the dung may be infected ; and, doubtless, 

 in dried dung in fields, the mycelium often remains at rest for many 

 days or even weeks until rain comes again. Then the mycelium 

 resumes its growth and may give rise to fruit-bodies. The exact 

 state which the mycelium assumes when becoming quiescent, how- 

 ever, requires further investigation. 



There is no difficulty in cultivating the fungus from spores in 

 the laboratory. Some horse dung was sterilised and then infected 

 with the spores of a fruit-body which had come up spontaneously 



347 



