[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. [Illustration: FIGURE 36.--Coprinus comatus, early stages of deliquescence; the ring is lying on the sod (natural size).] There is one curious feature about the expansion of the pileus of the shaggy-mane which could not escape our attention. The pileus has become very long while comparatively little lateral expansion has taken place. The pileus has remained cylindrical or barrel-shaped, while in the case of the common mushroom the pileus expands into the form of an umbrella. [Illustration: FIGURE 37.--Coprinus comatus, later stage of deliquescence, pileus becoming more expanded (natural size).]