NOVEMBER. 515 



ties of Nature. The Fungi mostly appear in the 

 autumnal season, when the finger of decay solemnizes 

 the country, and fogs plunge into the long-extending 

 woods amongst fallen sticks and mosses, calling up 

 with their moist breath new forms of vegetable mor- 

 phism which might not otherwise have appeared, and 

 giving splendid colours to dissolving particles of mat- 

 ter. So with the Fungi our thoughts are connected 

 with particoloured trees, withered heaths, and autum- 

 nal gusts and gleams the mushroom brings in its 

 train mists and shortened days, and so we must 



" Think of yellow leaves, of owlet's cry, 



Of logs piled plenteously :" 



for the evenings then require a cheering blaze upon 

 the hearth after a long hunt through damp woods and 

 over green aftermaths. 



I have many pleasant recollections of rambles 

 among autumnal woods for Fungi, poring among dead 

 leaves, or brushing through dwarf bushes and among 

 broken stumps studded with black earth-tongues 

 (Geoglossum) , and then suddenly coming on a charcoal 

 circle brilliant with the vermillion TJielepliora carbo- 

 naria. Beech woods, in their sylvan aisles and deep 

 brooding recesses, produce many local and curious 

 fungi, and among those that so finely adorn the Cottes- 

 wolds I have gathered the large brown Club Clavaria 

 (C. pistillaris), and the tall attenuated C. Ardenia. 

 Sometimes the wanderer comes upon a dank obscure 

 and secluded shadowy place in a park, where wood has 

 been stored for years, and fallen timber saturated by 

 the rain, rots unnoticed on the dingy soil. Such a 

 spot I remember to have noticed in company with my 

 friend the Rev. A. BLOXAM, well known for his bota- 



2 L2 



