Agarics with which it appears probable oar present subject should be confounded; many Agarics besides 

 grow on sticks ; but they are white-spored or have stems ; there is one called Ramealis, the Stick Agaric, 

 possessing both these points, so no other difl'erence need be cited. Sticks indeed — dead rotten sticks, such 

 as poor old hags fill a ragged apron with to boil their tea-kettle, are not the despicable things that many 

 imagine ; it would probably be impossible to jiick out one which should not be garnished with some species 

 of fungus life ; some possessing exquisite beauty, all exquisite contrivances for self-developmeut and propa- 

 gation and the task they have to fulfil, the disintegration of dead wood. Tiie poor never look grudgingly 

 at a basket of " savoury meat " in the Toadstool form ; they would not eat, so do not envy them to the 

 collector ; but we have felt rather ashamed of ourselves, as, exultingly bearing a cargo of " sticks " picked 

 out of ditches and banks in a Norfolk district where fuel is scarce, we met other " collectors " of that 

 species of treasure, who never dreaming of the nearly invisible Spherias, and a himdred other beautiful 

 creations with which they were studded, undoubtedly thought we might have left such gleanings to kindle 

 (they call them "kindhngs" in Norfolk) a blaze on the hearth of poverty. 



