ANELLARIA SEPARATA 



355 



toward the basidium-axis, the basidium-body shortened and its 

 end changed from a convex to a concave shape. As the concavity 

 was being produced, the basidium-body changed from a bright 

 appearance to a uniform grey. Within a few seconds after the 

 beginning of the collapse, the whole basidium came to resemble 

 other collapsed basidia and could not be distinguished from them. 



The Discharge of the Four Spores of a Single Basidium in Anellaria separata. 



Altogether the time of collapse of four basidia was carefully 

 noted, the zero of the time-scale being in each case the moment 

 of discharge of the last of the four spores : 



The first basidium observed collapsed after 22 minutes, 

 ,. second ,, ,, ., ,, 15 ,, 



,, third 20 



,, fourth ,, ., 21 



The average time of collapse was . . 19*5 ,, 



We may say, therefore, that in Anellaria separata the collapse of 

 a basidium usually takes place about twenty minutes after the 

 discharge of the last of its four spores. This interval of time 

 is about the same as that which was observed for Stropharia 



Among the abnormalities of the basidia the following were noted. 

 Occasionally, a basidium was observed to bear five spores instead 

 of the usual four. Occasionally, a basidium was seen with one 

 aborted spore and the other three of the usual size or possibly a 

 little larger. The aborted spore was only about one-third of the 

 usual diameter and therefore relatively very small in volume. 



A Photograph of the Hymenium. When studying the 

 hymenium of Panaeolus campanulatus, I endeavoured to photo- 

 graph the living hymenium but, unfortunately, the results were 



