448 MYOOLOGIO FLORA OF KEW GARDENS. 



round from Kew to Eicbmoncl, and on the other by the high road 

 between these two places. 



Of the Koyal Gardens themselves some hundred acres is little 

 disturbed by any kind of cultivation, and it has certainly remained 

 so for at least a century and a half. Some portions may never 

 possibly have been subjected to cultivation at all. It is not surprising 

 therefore that in the background of horticultural treatment there 

 still subsists a wild fauna and flora of no inconsiderable dimensions. 

 This, as opportunity offers, it is proposed to work out and catalogue 

 from time to time. Mr. G. Nicholson, A.L.S., the present Curator, 

 enumerated the flowering plants occurring spontaneously in the 

 Journal of Botany for 1875. A striking peculiarity of this list " is 

 the very small number of naturalized exotics." In the case of 

 Fungi the case is very different. 



The enumeration of 337 genera and 1340 species illustrates the 

 richness of the Mycologic Flora of the Royal Gardens, which far 

 surpasses in point of numbers, as also in the variety of rare and 

 interesting species, any other record for an equal area. This is only 

 perhaps what would be expected, when the large annual influx of 

 plants to Kew from all quarters of the globe is taken into consider- 

 ation. By this means microscopic fungi, parasitic or saprophytic 

 on plants, are introduced in a living condition on the various hosts, 

 whereas the higher forms belonging to the AgaricinecB and the 

 Gastromycetes are usually introduced along with soil, or frequently 

 on the trunks of tree-ferns, either in the form of spores, or in an 

 undeveloped condition. It is worthy of note that the Polyporea 

 and Thelephorece, so abundant in tropical regions, are absent from 

 the list as introduced species. 



As illustrative of the exotic element may be mentioned Hiatula 

 Wynni(B Berk. & Broome, first described {Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 1879, 206) from specimens found in a stove in the Gardens ; this 

 species has recently been received from the neighbourhood of Bris- 

 bane, where it is not uncommon, and said to be luminous, emitting 

 a pale green light. It is figured by Cooke {lUustr. Brit. Fung. 

 pi. 688). Flaminula purpurata Cke. & Mass., a very beautiful 

 fungus, was established (Grevillea, xviii. 73) from specimens growing 

 on the trunk of a tree-fern in one of the fern-houses, and has since 

 been received from New Zealand, its undoubted home. Aserde 

 rubra Labill., the most beautiful of the many quaint forms belonging 

 to the Gasteromycetes, a native of Queensland, also occurred in a 

 stove some time previous to the year 1867 ; the specimens are at 

 present in the Herbarium. The genus Chitonia, including only four 

 known species, is represented by G. rubrieeps Cke. & Mass. {Grevillea, 

 XV. 57 [65]), found on soil in the Aroid House, but although a 

 typical member of an exotic genus, no clue as to its native habitat 

 has yet been obtained. 



Coming to microscopic forms, we find that the list contains a 

 still greater percentage of introduced species, i. e. species new to 

 the British list, and growing on exotic plants. The genus Phoma 

 heads the list with 107 species, of which above three-fourths have 

 been met with only at Kew, so far as the British Isles are concerned, 



