164 



agarics could only be numbered by units instead of by scores, as fondly hoped 

 for ; but, as a popular poet has said, 



" We iniy roam through this world like a child at a feast, 



"Whn but sips at a sweet and then flies to the rest ; 

 Ami when pleasure begins to grow dull in the east 



We may order our wings and be off to the west." 



And so on the present occasion the disappointed Fungologists drew off from 



the wood to the open ground on the shoulder of the hill, and visited the two 



stunted hawthorns, so oddly called " The Cow and Calf. The view from this 



spot is usually most extensive and beautiful, but at this time it was enshrouded 



in mist, and since the Funguses were again absent, the descent was made to Old 



Sufton, where the carriages were waiting to convey the visitors to Hereford. 



The ride home would have been very pleasant but for the myriads of 



Aphides which swarmed in the air. It would almost seem true that 



" The thin-winged flies their transient time employ 

 Keeling through sunbeams in a dance of joy." 



The turnip aphis, however, has been terribly destructive this autumn, and a 

 field on the hill was passed smelling horridly from the decaying bulbs of the 

 turnip* plants they had destroyed. 



An examination at the Green Dragon of the Funguses brought for Exhi- 

 bition passed the time remaining before dinner very pleasantly. It was an 

 extremely interesting collection, and the only wonder was that in so dry a 

 season so many could have been produced. 



The most striking specimens were the arborescent Funguses, as might 

 have been anticipated. A huge specimen of Pohjporus frondosus was placed in 

 the centre of the table, and undoubtedly carried off the palm both for interest 

 and novelty. It weighed no less than U.Ubs., and, from its great size, the 

 beauty of its lines, and its gracefully over-lapping pilei, it proved the chief 

 attraction in the room. This species may be said to be virtually new to 

 Britain, for although its presence has been more than suspected by several 

 botanists, it is not given as British in any of our Floras, not excepting Mr. 

 Cooke's recent Hand-book. It is true that Mr. Berkeley published a species 

 under this name in the English Flora, but he afterwards corrected himself, 

 and referred his former plant to P. intybaccus, leaving out P. frondoms 

 altogether. A specimen of P. frondosus, gathered at Whitfield, was sent by 

 Dr. Bull to the exhibition at South Kensington yesterday, and to-day, besides 

 the grand one brought by J. E. Smith, Esq., from near Hay, there was 

 another from Whitfield, and also a very fine one brought by the Rev. W. 

 Houghton from the Wreldn. We have now, undoubtedly, in England, all 

 the three species of Fries : Pohjporus frondosus, known, in addition to other 

 characters, by its pore-surface and its flesh turning grey when bruised; P. 

 intybaccus, with its hundreds of pilei tufted together, very much branched and 

 smelling like mice ; and the P. giganteus, with its large imbricated pilei 

 turning red when bruised, and smelling horribly like rotten cheese. 



There were also very fine specimens of Polyporus applanatus, and P. 



