APPENDIX 
CONCERNING SPORES 
From observations by Professor Reginald Buller* on the 
production, liberation, and dispersion of the spores of 
Plymenomycetes, it would appear that the paraphyses are 
useful as spacial agents, preventing the adhesive spores of 
adjacent basidia from coming into contact during develop¬ 
ment and discharge. 
Large fungi liberate an enormous number of spores, 
amounting to thousands of millions. A specimen of Agari- 
cus campestris produced approximately 1,800,000,000 spores, 
and one of Coprinus comatus 5,240,000,000. From a com¬ 
putation based on the average length of some spores of the 
latter it was found that the spores would, if placed end to 
end, stretch through a distance of forty-one miles ! 
Numerous as are the spores of Coprinus comatus , they pale 
into insignificance compared with those produced by Cal- 
vatia gigantea (Lycopevdon bovista, Linn.), the Giant Puffball. 
A large dry specimen of this fungus, collected by Dr. 
Wright Wilson and given to the University of Birmingham, 
was calculated to have “ produced about 7,000,000,000,000 
spores, or as many as would be liberated by about 4,000 
good-sized mushrooms. Probably a large Giant Puffball 
which, it is said, may sometimes almost attain the dimen¬ 
sions of a sheep, is the most prolific organism living on our 
planet.” 
A specimen of Polyporus squamosns gave off clouds of spores 
* See his " Researches on Fungi,” recently published by Messrs. 
Longmans, Green and Co. 
