139 
the Spores of Coprinus sterquilinus, Fr< 
germinating the spores of Ascophaims carneus , Pers., but found that an 
alkaline medium combined with a certain temperature was necessary. He 
was unable to obtain pure cultures, growth proceeding only for a very short 
time, certain Bacteria, which were always present, seeming to him to stop 
growth, owing to their using up the oxygen. Wehmer ( 21 , pp. 311-16) 
found it impossible to germinate spores of Merulius , although various 
methods were tried during a period of three years. He seemed to think 
that the spores are incapable of development, and that propagation takes 
place vegetatively. Falck ( 9 , pp. 1-3) also thinks that among the innumer¬ 
able spores that are formed by Basidiomycetes, only a few are able to 
develop. This does not seem the case in Coprinus, the difficulty here 
being more likely one of failure to obtain the right conditions for germina¬ 
tion. These conditions must necessarily be hard to imitate for copro- 
philous Fungi, owing to the nature of their substratum and dissemination. 
Molliard’s explanation ( 16 ) quoted above can hardly be applied in the 
case of the germinating Coprinus spores and their accompanying Bacteria. 
Probably the Bacteria produce substances favouring the growth of the 
Fungus spores, whilst the activity of the Coprinus mycelium in its turn and in 
the same way benefits the development of the bacterial cells. About this 
there can in fact be no doubt. The actively growing Bacteria are found 
covering in large numbers the mycelial tubes of the Fungus, especially 
at points where branching occurs (Fig. 10). Possibly also in each case 
injurious by-products are formed by one of the two organisms which may 
be removed or rendered innocuous by the other. The fact that the presence 
of the longer bacilli inhibits the development of the Coprinus mycelium 
seems to point to the fact that in this case at any rate some toxic compounds 
are formed which are not removed. 
Schmidt (20, pp. 73-5) finds that the combined influences of a fairly 
high temperature and certain chemical reagents will lead to germination in 
some cases. It seems not unlikely that the Bacteria may play the same 
part as these chemical reagents. In 1905 Duggar, in a paper on Mushroom 
growing and spawn-making (8, pp. 12-18), gave an account, in the section 
on Germination Studies, of Margaret Ferguson’s work on the relation of 
stimuli on germination in certain species of Agai'icus. From her results she 
concludes ‘ that the problems involved are not the well-known simple 
nutrient and physical factors ’. Thousands of cultures were made in nutrient 
media, but germination was only erratic. When a bit of mycelium was 
introduced into the culture, almost a perfect percentage of germination was 
obtained. Duggar concludes the stimulus here to be of enzymatic nature, 
although perhaps it could only be looked upon as a substitution stimulus, 
and not one which would obtain in nature. It seems probable that the 
Bacteria have the same sort of influence as the living tissue in the case of 
Agaricus campestris , their influence being possibly of an enzymatic nature. 
