KOTES ON THE MYCOLOGY OF KELYINGROVE PARK. 75 



Notes on the Mycolog'y of Kelvingrove Park. 



By William Stewart. 



[Read 27tli October, 1896.] 



A YOUNG mycologist would probably despise the Glasgow public 

 parks as a field for investigation, under the impression that so 

 well-kept grounds do not afibrd the necessary conditions for the 

 development of organisms which flourish best where decay and 

 disorder reign. And it is true that the old woods of a neglected 

 estate afiTord the student the best hunting-grounds for Fungi, which, 

 with the beetles, are Nature's scavengers, specially designed to 

 hasten the decay, and assist in the speedy removal of higher 

 organisms that have served their day and generation, and become 

 cumberers of the ground. In such a situation the profusion of 

 Fungi is only puzzling to a young student, and a field that only 

 offers a few varieties wdll prove more profitable, as his attention is 

 then fixed on only a few species, and he gets their general appear- 

 ance and peculiar characteristics so impressed on his memory 

 that he readily recognises them at a second finding. From this 

 consideration the parks offer a favourable and convenient field for 

 beginners, and will be found worthy of attention by those even 

 well advanced, for I have seldom visited any of them in suitable 

 conditions of season and temperature without being rewarded by 

 the finding of some to add to the record. When we remember 

 that Glasgow now possesses thirteen parks, with convenient means 

 of reaching them, several of them of large acreage and fairly 

 wooded, it must be apparent that it wall repay a mycologist who 

 cannot spare time for a distant foray to take an occasional excursion 

 throuo-h iirounds so easilv accessible. On a visit to Cathkin Park 

 Professor Thomas King and I made a very good list on a day this 

 year which was not very favourable. As Professor King took the 

 notes, T cannot give the numbers, but we were surprised at its 

 length under unfavourable conditions. 



