1884-85.] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club, 217 



factured into warm winter hats and chest-protectors. The most 

 fashionable likus worn by the Fijian ladies are made of a Fungus 

 — probably one of the Sapballs. Polyporus betulinus, when cut 

 into strips and nibbed with pumice-stone, is made into razor- 

 strops. Polyporus ignarius is pounded and used as snuff by the 

 Ostyacks on the Obi. Some species are put to strange uses. In 

 Kamtschatka and Corea, Agaricus muscarius, or False-orange or Fly 

 Agaric, is decocted with the runners of Epilobium angustifolium, 

 or the berries of Vaccinium uliginosum, and made into a highly in- 

 toxicating liquor. Greville says that the most powerful effect is 

 produced by drying this Fungus and swallowing it without masti- 

 cation. Tlie natives personify this Fungus, and allege that they 

 are only obeying its behests when they commit suicide or other 

 crimes under its influence. Monkhamorr, a strong drink used by 

 the Eussian 2">easants, is also extracted from this Mushroom ; and 

 among the Tartars this drink is an element in their worship. Poly- 

 porus sacer is worshipped in New Guinea and the west coast of 

 Africa. Many of them are also highly destructive. Polyporus 

 destructor, the common Dry-rot Fungus, known in Germany as 

 Hausschwamm, and the Meruleus lachrymans in this country, are 

 well known. The spawn diffuses itself through the substance of 

 the timber, and rapidly destroys it. At the Forestry Exhibition 

 held in Edinburgh this summer, seven or eight edible species of 

 Fungi from Japan were exhibited, and a large Fungus collection 

 by the natives of British Guiana, with the note that this is entirely 

 a new study in British Guiana. 



Before concluding, I should like to draw attention to the im- 

 portance given to this branch of botany by other Field Clubs. The 

 Essex Field Club have yearly forays for Fungi, and most interest- 

 ing exciu-sions they seem to be. At their October excursion this 

 year thirty new species were found in the same localities that had 

 been gone over carefully the previous season. The Woolhope 

 Field Club had also their Fungus excursion in the beginning of 

 November last, and found many very interesting kinds, although the 

 past dry summer had not been favourable to their growth. The 

 members dined together afterwards, and partook of Hydnum re- 

 pandum and Cantharellus cibarius, both of which were generally 

 appreciated. These facts show the increasing importance attached 

 to this branch of Natural History, and ought to convince us as a 

 Field Club of the necessity of making at least one excursion every 

 season for the prosecution of the study of Fungi. 



