1 66 

 ESSEX FIELD CLUB'S "FUNGUS FORAY," 1899. 



By GEORGE MASSEE, F.L.S., i'vtncipal Assistant, Koycil Hcibaiium, Kcw ; President 

 of the British Mycological Society. 



IN the majority of instances, Mycological students commence 

 by first paying attention to the toadstools or Agarics, or 

 other large examples of fungal life ; and the comparative absence 

 of young aspirants to a knowledge of the subject may in part be 

 explained by the fact that the class of fungi indicated above 

 have, for some as yet unexplained reason, been, for the last feu- 

 years, comparatively speaking, absent from their accustomed 

 haunts. 



Doubtless, the idea will occur to many (if the subject is con- 

 sidered worthy of bestowing a thought upon) that comparati\'e 

 drougiit is the cause of the absence of fungi, and this is, im- 

 doubtedly, one factor that determines the relative abundance of 

 fungi, but it is not the only one. 



During those favourable seasons, when fungi are most 

 abundant in numbers, it is a fact well known to every field 

 mycologist that, even the same district, white-spored Agarics 

 sometimes predominate to a very large extent, whereas, another 

 season, rusty-spored species are well to the front, and white- 

 spored species are rare. Again, during some seasons, the 

 species of Boletus are numerous, whereas on other occasions, 

 representatives of the genus are rare, or entirely absent, 

 although to an ordinary observer climatic conditions were 

 equally favourable during the two seasons. In 1894, Copnniis 

 comatits occurred in immense numbers throughout the late 

 summer and autumn, on a piece of waste ground by the river 

 between Kew and Mortlake ; this autumn the crop is again 

 equal to that of 1894, but during the intervening four years, not 

 a dozen specimens were observed. It can scarcely be suggested 

 that a crop is produced by the mycelium of this fungus only once 

 in five years, and is further negatived by the fact that on certain 

 occasions we have an abundance of individuals produced for 

 several years in succession. At present it may be stated, with- 

 out qualification, tiiat we are absolutely ignorant as to the com- 

 bination of conditions necessary to determine the growth in 

 profusion of different species of fungi. Something might be 

 done by those residing in the neighbourhood of Epping Forest, 

 and as the observations, to be of any real value, would have to 

 extend over several — even many -years, the commencement 

 should not be delaved. 



