362 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



the magnification. The actual magnification employed was 1,040 

 diameters. 



For all my investigations upon the Mushroom, I have used 

 living material. Gills which have been fixed, stained, and cut with 



FIG. 129. Psalliota campestris, the Common Mushroom. From an English meadow. 

 Photographed by Somerville Hastings, natural size. 



the microtome, hinder rather than help one in perceiving the finer 

 relations of the hymenial elements to one another. In such sections, 

 the ripe and nearly ripe spores are always torn from their sterig- 

 mata, thus leaving a number of basidia in a mutilated condition, 

 and the basidia which still bear spores are relatively immature. 

 Moreover, in a microtome section, it is often difficult or impossible 

 to differentiate the hymenial elements from one another, owing to 

 the fact that they were killed when being fixed and have therefore 



