1898] BOTANICAL WORK WANTING WORKERS 33 



mycetes, and Ascomycetes, especially the Tuberacei. (A list of 

 these groups is appended.) 



The best time of year to search for Fungi is undoubtedly from 

 July to November, although some may be found during the rest of 

 the year. 



The Tuberacei are probably neglected because very little indi- 

 cation of their presence underground is to be observed except by the 

 eye of an expert. On digging up the mould under oak and fir trees 

 their presence may sometimes be detected when the dead leaves are 

 scraped away, by the appearance of a mycelium on the top of the 

 soil, but more easily perhaps by the fact that the mould when dug 

 up exhibits here and there firmer masses, clue to its being com- 

 pacted together by the nearly invisible mycelium, and these lumps 

 when broken open show the more or less globular fungi inside. 



4. Lichens. — The Lichen flora of the county is by no means 

 exhausted. The subalpine and alpine species are those in which the 

 county flora is naturally deficient, although singularly enough the 

 gravel beach at Lydd, which is only a few feet above the sea level, 

 furnishes a larger number of subalpine species than any other part 

 of the county. Species which in Devon and Cornwall occur on the 

 borders of Dartmoor are here scattered over small prostrate bushes 

 which, dwarfed by the rough winds that sweep over the level ground 

 of Eomney Marsh, rarely reach more than a foot and a half in 

 height. 



The other groups that are not well represented are those which 

 might be expected to occur on limestone walls and old ruins and on 

 aged trees in parks. The limestone district of the Lower Greensand 

 and the wooded districts alluded to under mosses, are those most 

 likely to furnish species new to the county. 



As a rule wooded districts a few miles from the sea are the 

 richest for lichens, especially in damp valleys and on isolated trees 

 exposed to the light and air. Oak trees in particular are furnished 

 with a great number of species. Within a radius of about twenty 

 miles from London, lichens are, as a rule, imperfectly developed, the 

 smoke of towns being particularly detrimental to their growth. 

 Where lichens are abundant, as a rule, the S.W. side of a tree is 

 the richest, and the S.W. side of the county is likely to yield more 

 than the eastern. 



5. Marine Algae. — No list of the marine algae of the county 

 has been published so far as I am aware. Mr J. T. Neeve of Deal 

 has explored the neighbourhood of that town with remarkable 

 success, having detected a species new to science, Gonimophyllwii 

 Buffhami, as yet found nowhere else, although the seaweed Nito- 

 yhyllum laceratum, upon which it is a parasite, is quite a common 

 species on the English coast. The neighbourhood of Folkestone 



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