Nichols— Binucheated Cells in Some Basidiomycetes. 
43 
Coprinus. 
The dung inhabiting C opr ini are so easily obtained from dung 
cultures that the spores were not collected and stored as for the 
other species studied. The spores were transferred by means 
of a sterilized needle directly from the gills to the culture med¬ 
ium. For the study of the germinating spore and the early 
mj^celium the agar hanging drop cultures are the most satis¬ 
factory. But for the older mycelium and for the formation of 
the carpophore agar plates in Petri dishes give the best results. 
The spores of Coprinus ephemeras (?) germinate in from four 
to forty-eight hours, l'n the majority of cases of spores ob¬ 
tained from mature carpophores germination occurred in six 
hours. The spore wall does not swell and become transparent 
in germination as in Hypholoma perplexum and it is impossible 
to observe the position of the nuclei in the spore. At one end 
of the spore there is a thinner place in the wall—the germ pore. 
The germ tube appears as a small globular protrusion. One 
of the nuclei passes out from the spore at once into the germ tube. 
The nuclei divide very rapidly so that the young germ tube 
soon contains from three to six nuclei. At this time a nucleus 
can frequently be seen in the spore either near its center or 
just passing through the pore into the germ tube. At the end 
of the spore opposite the germ tube there is a dark hemispherical 
body, which perhaps marks the position of a second spore that 
has been closed by a cellulose thickening (Figs. 8 & 9). 
The tube grows very rapidly forming a main hypha which is 
a direct extension from the spore and also a lateral branch which 
is nearly at right angles to it. This is well illustrated in Fig. 
10 which is drawn from a germinating spore at the end of six¬ 
teen hours. The main hypha is slightly constricted at irregular 
intervals and in nearly every instance it is possible to determine 
the presence of a cross wail at the constrictions. The number 
and size of the nuclei vary in the different cells. The first and 
fourth cells counting from the spore have a very large nucleus 
which is more than twice the size of the nuclei in the other cells. 
The nucleole is very large and the chromatin is very much denser 
than in the nuclei usually found in this species. The other cells 
