3 1 ? 
Coprophilous Fungi, 
dish. At the expiration of two or three hours, numerous 
groups, each containing eight spores, were deposited on the 
lid of the dish, and so firmly cemented that they could not be 
removed with a needle without breaking the mass to powder. 
When such pure deposits of spores are secured it is only 
necessary to add a nutritive medium for the purpose of 
studying germination. When spores so deposited have been 
immersed for a week in liquid they still remain in groups 
firmly cemented to the glass. The spore-masses ejected by 
Thelebolus stercoreus behave in a similar manner. 
The above experiments prove that the wholesale diffusion 
of Ascobolus spores by wind is out of the question, and the 
explanation of the presence of species of Ascobolus on practi- 
cally every portion of dung deposited seems to be that the 
spores from the Fungi on a given piece of dung are ejected 
and alight on the surrounding grass. Such spore-laden grass 
is eaten by some herbivorous animal, its dung in turn produces 
more Fungi, which in due course diffuse their spores, and thus 
the continued production of the Fungus is secured. 
The following indirect evidence of the method of spore 
. diffusion by herbivorous animals supports the previous state- 
ment. An analysis of the Fungi occurring on dung as given 
by Saccardo (34) gives the following figures On dung of 
herbivora, 708 species ; on carnivora, 45 species ; on reptilia, 
4 species. Moreover, when the dung of a herbivorous animal 
is cut into pieces it is found that the cut surfaces yield a crop 
of Fungi quite equal in number to those produced on the 
original external surface. The only means of accounting for 
the growth of Fungi in the position thus described is on the 
supposition that the spores were swallowed along with the food. 
We succeeded in germinating the spores of Ascobolus per - 
plexans and a form of A . glaber with dull white apothecia 
(A. albidus , Crouan) under the following conditions. One 
sowing was made in a hanging-drop of tap-water, another 
in a drop of decoction of dung, average temperature 8o° F. 
After twenty hours nearly all the spores showed vigorous 
germ -tubes, frequently proceeding from both ends of the 
