applied to the stem, while in the small one the gills are
separated a short distance from the stems showing "gill slits." Here,
too, the connection of the margin of the pileus with the stem is still
shown, and forms the veil. This kind of a veil is a marginal veil.

[Illustration: FIGURE 34.--Coprinus comatus (natural size). This one
entirely white, none of the scales black tipped.]

The stem is hollow even at this young stage, and a slender cord of
mycelium extends down the center of the tube thus formed, as is shown in
the sections.

The plants are nearly all white when full grown. The brown scales, so
close together on the buttons, are widely separated except at the top or
center of the pileus, where they remain close together and form a broad
cap.

A study of the different stages, which appear from the button stage to
the mature plant, reveals the cause of this change in color and the wide
separation of the dark brown scales. The threads of the outer layer of
the pileus, and especially those in the brown patches seen on the
buttons, soon cease to grow, though they are firmly entangled with the
inner layers. Now the threads underneath and all through the plant, in
the gills and in the upper part of the stem, grow and elongate rapidly.
This pulls on the outer layer, tearing it in the first place into small
patches, and causing them later to be more widely separated on the
mature plant. Some of these scales remain quite large, while others are
torn up into quite small tufts.

[Illustration: FIGURE 35.--Coprinus comatus, sections of the plants in
Fig. 33 (natural size).]

As the plant ages, the next inner layers of the pileus grow less
rapidly, so that the white layer beneath the brown is torn up into an
intricate tangle of locks and tufts, or is frazzled into a delicate pile
which exists here and there between well formed tufts. While all present
the same general characters there is considerable individual variation,
as one can see by comparing a number of different plants. Figure 34
shows one of the interesting conditions. There is little of the brown
color, and the outer portion of the pileus is torn into long locks,
quite evenly distributed and curled up at the ends in an interesting
fashion which merits well the term "shaggy." In others the threads are
looped up quite regularly into triangular tresses which appear to be
knotted at the ends where the tangle of brown threads holds them
together.

[Illustrati