188 



So bore antiquarian reflection may carry back the niinJ into the dubious mists 

 of conjecture, and bring back Britons, Romans, or Saxons, to stand again in 

 fancy on the edge of that steep vallum which, in hostile garb, it would haro 

 been once dangerous to attempt the ascent of. But time has smoothed all 

 •sperities from the way — aU foemen are dead — and the thickly serried trees 

 are the only defenders of the ground. An interest of another kind, and one 

 dear to botanists, now attaches to the spot, and tempted the "WooUiope 

 Naturalists there on the present occasion. In the pages of Withering, the best 

 expounder of British botany late in the last century, are recorded the gather- 

 ings of various curious Funguses in Caplar Wood, and these made by a 

 Herefordshire observer, Mr. Stackhouse, a former resident near the spot, and 

 Loi'd of the Manor. Mr. Stackhouse deserves an honourable niche in the 

 Woolhope Transactions, for the first synoptical arrangement of British Agarics, 

 as given in Withering's "Botanical Arrangement of British Plants," was made 

 by him, and some of his divisions, easy to be made out, might be advanta- 

 geously used by students in the present day. Caplar Wood and hill seems to 

 have been his favourite haunt, and here no doubt the prying old gentleman, 

 in the costume of his day — cocked hat, knee breeches, and great silver buckles 

 in his shoes — and perhajis with gold-headed cane in hand, might have been 

 seen prying among the dead matted leaves under the trees of the wood, his 

 eyes sparkling with pleasure as the elegant Nidularia campanulata, or a speci- 

 men of the great "Club of Hercules" (Clavaria herculanea of Withering), 

 both of which he gathered here, met Ms delighted view. 



Stimulated by the thought of Mr. Stackhousc's researches at this famous 

 locality, the fungologists, having left theii- vehicles, slowly urged their way 

 up the steep hill, for a time involved in deep sylvan shadows, till at last 

 emerging where the vallum of the camp rose in its bare verdure before their 

 view. Doubtless some alteration in the aspect of the ground has occuiTed 

 since Stackhouse faced the glades with good success both for Withering and 

 himself, for an intricate net-work of brambles now covers the groimd beneath 

 fir trees generally most productive in local funguses, and it was difiScult to 

 search beneath these without more trouble than the time permitted. The 

 returns to the collector were not therefore quite so good as was fondly 

 expected, and perhaps also many agarics had died off. StUl a few specimens were 

 added to the roll of the day, as will be seen in the appended list of spoils, 

 and amongst these was the deadly Lactarius torminosus. Very fine specimens 

 of Ag, procerus on the grassy vaUxun of the camji, and in the hanging woods 

 the Agaricus tener ; the Coprinus nivalis; the A. (Mycena) cpipteryyius ; tho 

 A flaccidus; the Marasmius Urens; the M. peronatus; the Hymenochoote 

 rubiginosa, and some few others. 



From the summit of the hill the party enjoyed a contemplation of the 

 distant view of the valley of the Wye below them and the wooded and bare 

 hills beyond that filled up the charming landscape, while a sober few traced 

 the trench surrounding the sixmmit of the hill. The name is evidently of 



