185 



The members met at the Mitre Hotel a little after niue o'clock for the 

 purpose of aiTanging and naming the several specimens brought by the different 

 members. — There was a Polyporus hispidus, Lirge as a pack saddle, and the hard 

 rounded Polypnrus iijniarius sent with some other kinds of tree funguses from 

 Sufton Court, by K. Hereford, Esq. ; a basket containing a series of mushrooms, 

 from the ordinary one, Agarkus campcstris, through intermeiliate varieties to 

 the large field mushroom, the Agarkus arvensis, and some others, from Mrs. 

 Key, of Stretton ; a box brought by Arthur Armitage, Esq. ; a small hamper 

 from Whitfield ; and above and beyond all, a collection of the varieties shown 

 at the beginning of the week at the Fungus Exhibition of the Royal Horticul- 

 tui-al Society, at South Kensington. These will be specially alluded to hereafter, 

 and for the present, therefore, must be passed by. 



The Club elected unanimously the Rev. Archer Clive and Thomas Turner, 

 Esq., members, and, having transacted the ordinary business, they left about 

 10 o'clock in a well-filled coach for Holm Lacy Park, where the first hunt was 

 to be made, by the kind sanction of Sii- Edwin L. S. Scudamore Stanhope, 

 Bart. At the entrance of the grounds the Club was mat by the Rev. Berkeley, 

 L. S. Stanhope and the Rev. William Stanhope, two of its members, and at 

 once proceeded under their guidance. A beautiful group of the maned Agaric, 

 Coprinus comatus, quickly attracted attention. It took almost the foim of a 

 circle, though not oue of those that usually do so. It is vei-y common and 

 as interesting and handsome in ajipearance as it is good to eat, if people in 

 general did but know it.— The ijretty crested Agaric,. j1. mstatus, also edible, 

 aud the A. (Mijcena) vulgaris were next gathered, and on the bank [under the 

 Scotch fir trees several specimens of the not very common Boletus granulatus 

 were found, and as a matter of coui-se some bunches of the common poisonous 

 A. faackulwris were observed. A portion of the gardens were passed through. 

 One of the flower beds had a fine crop of the Agarkus infundibuliformis in it ; 

 and a cluster of the Boletus subtomcnlosus was gathered below the terrace 

 walk. This Boletus was also seen many times during the day. 



On enteiing the jiark the magnificent oak " The Ti-ysting tree" (Quercus 

 pedunculata) came into sight, and iato full admiration at once. One gentle- 

 man stopjiing too long in the garden to admire some of the fine bedding 

 plants had been nearly fined for causing unnecessary delay, but this noble tree 

 arrested universal attention. It is a fine wide spreading well shaped tree. 

 The trunk quickly separates into branches, which drop almost to the ground, 

 and indeed are only kept from it by numerous props. The circumference of 

 the trunk (in 1866, it was not measured at this time) was 26ft. llin. at 

 three feet from the ground, and 2oft. Tin. at five feet. The diameter spread of 

 its branches was 44 yards N. and S., and 41 yards E. and W. Its exact 

 height by Mr. Wells' clinometer is 83 feet, and from his calculations the tree 

 contains 1,400 cubic feet of timber. The tree is past its prime, and the trunk 

 is beginning to get hollow. It still swells at the rate of rather more than an 

 inch per annum from observations made by Sii' Edwin Stanhope liimsclf over Bf 

 period of more than twenty years. 



