GENERAL SUMMARY 



459 



Coprinus lagopus which developed no spores at all were found to possess 

 basidium-bodies but neither steriginata nor spore-rudiments. The 

 author discusses the possible cause of sterility. 



It is suggested that the monstrous fruit-bodies of Polyporus mfescens 

 owe their abnormal form to a loss of power to respond to geo tropic 

 stimuli. 



The pileus of a Coprinus sterquilinus fruit-body was successfully 

 grafted upon the decapitated stipe of another fruit-body of the same 

 species ; but attempts to graft the pileus of one species of Coprinus upon 

 the stipe of another species failed. 



Coprinus lagopus, which under favourable conditions produces large 

 fruit-bodies, 100-200 mm. high, under less favourable conditions produces 

 dwarf fruit-bodies which may have stipes only 1-10 mm. high and ex- 

 panded pilei only 0*75-3 mm. in diameter. These minute fruit-bodies, 

 Avhich may lack cystidia, develop and liberate a small number of perfect 

 spores which, if sown on favourable nutrient media, give rise to large 

 normal fruit-bodies one hundred or more times larger than the dwarfs. 

 The dwarf fruit-bodies of C. lagopus have been regarded by certain 

 systematists as belonging to an independent species. 



At Winnipeg Marasmius oreades has been successfully cultivated for 

 food purposes from spawn on a soil-covered bed of manure. The author 

 describes how the bed was made and the large abnormal fruit-bodies 

 which appeared upon it. 



Chapter IV. The spore-fall period for Coprinus curtus, which has 

 small fruit-bodies (expanded pilei 2-5-15 mm. wide) occurring on horse 

 dung, is extremely brief, being only from 30 minutes to 2 hours and 

 30 minutes in length. The fruit-bodies are produced in diurnal crops, 

 and the spores are usually liberated about the middle of the morning. 



The escape of the white spore-clouds from the pilei of Armillaria 

 mellea was successfully observed by the author with the naked eye, under 

 natural conditions in a wood. 



From the fruit-bodies of Hydnum septentrionale there is probably 

 not " a simultaneous liberation of spores followed by a period of rest," 

 as has been supposed ; but, on the contrary, the spores are probably 

 liberated in a constant stream, as in the Agaricineae, the Polyporeae, 

 and Hymenomycetes in general. 



The fruit-body of Fomes fomentarius develops a new annual tube- 

 layer in the autumn, but the production and liberation of spores from 

 it is delayed until spring. This discovery, originally made by J. H. 

 Faull, has been confirmed by the author. Faull has also discovered 

 that, in F. fomentarius, each annual tube-layer may produce a crop of 

 spores for four years in succession. The form and mode of growth of 

 a F. fomentarius fruit-body is profoundly modified by various reactions 

 to the stimulus of gravity. The attachment of a F. fomentarius fruit- 

 body to the mycelium in the trunk of a tree is localised at the back 



