NOTES : ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 
Ill 
like one end of such an egg sticking up among the dead leaves. At this 
stage there usually ensued a period of quiescence, varying from a couple 
of days up to, I believe, a fortnight—the duration of this resting stage 
depending, no doubt, on the temperature and the rainfall in combination. 
Examination of the egg, or volva, at this period showed that it was soft 
and flabby to the touch and fllled with a thick, glary, unpleasant-looking 
yellowish-white slime. Then suddenly some morning one found that the 
" egg ” had hatched (so to speak) and the fungus had sprung up to its 
full height of from five to eight inches. How long this development 
occupies I know not, but as I never saw an example whilst it was in progess 
I take it that the change is rapid, occupying no more than an hour or, 
at most, a few hours. 
It was interesting, too, to observe what happened immediately after 
this sudden development of the fungus was completed. 
The comparatively small thimble-shaped cap, or pileus, which now 
tops the thick upright stem, has on its upper surface a number of raised 
ribs, arranged in an irregular reticulated pattern. Further, the whole 
top of the cap is covered by a thick glutinous slime, dark green at first, 
afterwards becoming almost black, which covers both the raised ribs and 
the depressed spaces between them. In this sticky slime are enclosed 
the spores of the fungus, and from it emanates the horrible smell always 
associated with the plant. 
Immediately on the complete development of the fungus this putrid 
smell attracts numerous large flies of various kinds (chiefly the large black 
wood-fly and the blue-bottle), which settle thickly upon and often com¬ 
pletely cover the cap. The flies at once start to devour the dark-coloured 
slime, and in so doing they become more or less smeared with it (or at least 
get some of it upon their feet and legs). Then, their appetites sated, 
they fly away, carrying with them some of the sticky slime, some of 
which they inevitably deposit wherever next they happen to alight. 
They thus effect a more or less wide dispersal of the spores of the fungus, 
which are contained in the slime. Occasionally, late in the summer, I 
saw wasps on the pileus, also apparently consuming the black slime (and, 
no doubt, afterwards helping, like the flies, to disperse widely the spores 
contained in it), but I have no note of having seen any other insect similarly 
engaged. 
After this the entire fungus soon begins to wilt, bends over sideways, 
gradually rots away, and finally disappears altogether.— Miller Christy, 
F.L.S. 
