BRITISH MYCOtOGlCAI. SOCIE'Ty. 



The second annual meeting of this Society was held in Dublin on 

 September 19th to 24th. It may be characterised as having been a week 

 of hospitality and hard work. So eager were some of the members to 

 see what Ireland could produce in the way of fungi that the Secretary', 

 Mr. Rea, Mr. Rose, Mr. Stretton, and the acting President, appeared in 

 Dublin three days before the advertised time. They were met on their 

 arrival by the local secretary. Dr. T. Johnson, and by the veteran Irish 

 mycologist, Mr. Greenwood Pim. On the following day the Yorkshire 

 contingent arrived, Messrs. Crossland, Soppitt, Clarke, and Bearstow, 

 followed shortly after by Mr. G. C Hughes, of Chesterston, and Dr. 

 Peacock, of Malvern. Monday, September 17, saw the part}' ^;z rotit e ior 

 Howth. A ramble in a damp glen was soon rewarded by fin^\n% Hydmim 

 tidtim, a tuber, probably Hydnotria Tulasnei, but it was not quite mature ; 

 Cynophallus canmus, Naiicoria erwaceus, a group of magnificent specimens 

 of Lepiuta actitesquamosa, gave the mycologists an indication of what the 

 Irish woods could produce. 



In the evening a meeting was held in the Botanical Laboratory of the 

 Royal College of Science, where the work of naming the specimens was 

 begun in good earnest, microscopes and text-books being in considerable 

 demand. Mr. Swan exhibited a magnificent series of photographs of 

 the Saprolegnicc, Mr. Greenwood Pim showed some specimens and photo- 

 graphs, and Dr. McWeeney exhibited various cultures of fungi. 



On Tuesday, the 20th, the party, now augmented by the members of 

 the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, started off for Powerscourt, under the 

 guidance of Dr. Johnson in search of Gyrodon rubelhis, which Dr. 

 McWeeney had found some few years previously. The spot was found, 

 but not the fungus. A few stopped behind, and examined the ravages 

 caused b}' Polyportis Jovientaritis upon some splendid Beech-trees. It was 

 interesting to compare the effect of P. fovientarhis on Beech with what 

 was seen last year at Worksop of P. sulpJmreus on Oak. P. sulphtireiis gets 

 into a tree, and destroys the middle of the trunk, leaving it sound out- 

 side. P. fonientarius seems to vent its energies in destroying the exterior 

 of the tree, fine trunks having a third or a quarter of their cir- 

 cumference killed from the ground upwards from 10 to 15 or 20 feet. 

 Numerous specimens of Xho: Polyporus were in stftt, some of which Mr. 

 Clarke, of Halifax, photographed. The rare Polyporiis Wynnei was also 

 found, as well as the beautiful Marasmus Hiidsoni. 



A good company dined in the evening at Russell's Hotel, and adjoin- 

 ing to the large theatre of the Royal College of Science, the chair being 

 taken by Mr. R. LI. Praeger, the President of the Dublin Naturalists' 

 Field Club. The absence of the President of the British Mycological 

 Society, Mr. G. Massee, was regretted. It fell to the lot of Dr. Plowright 

 to take his place, and the Society did him the honour of electing him 

 their President for the ensuing year. In the evening he delivered his 

 Presidential Address, which was a critical discussion of certain fungi 

 figured in Cooke's " Illustrations." 



