56 
across, sent from Shobdon Court by Lord Bateman, Amongst the Russulas, 
found freely this year as usual in Herefordshire, there is as great a variety of hue 
as of wholesomeness, from the pale pink and faint rose to the brilliant scarlet of 
R. emetica. Cortinarius cinnabarinus is a clustering group, of a bright orange or 
nearly vermilion, with a metallic lustre. The Cinnamon Mushroom (Cortinarius 
Cinnamoneus) appeals to the sense of smell as well as of seeing, and there are 
several fungi of which the recent expedition furnished specimens which make the 
former appeal without any pretence to the latter. Before glancing at these we 
must just name the violet-capped Agaricus euchrous, found at Dinmore Woods 
on the 30th of September; the Coprinus picaceus, or Magpie Coprinus, a rare 
roadside fungus met with near Downton, the membraned cap of which is varie- 
gated with broad white scales, whilst its gills are free and of an ashen black; the 
mouse-gray Agaricus gloiocephalus, of which a large group was exhibited by Dr. 
Chapman from off the pastures of Burghill; and the rare, pale yellow crisped 
Sparassis, which has been more than once imported into these shows from the fir- 
groves of Chetwynd by Mr. Houghton. We must also say a word on the odorous 
fuugi, whether sweet savoured or the contrary. Of the first sort there were found 
at Stoke Edith, Lactarius glyciosmus, and Agaricus fragrans and odorus ; of the 
second, at Dinmore, the Agaricus cucumis, in an abundance commensurate with 
its strong odour, suggestive of rancid oil or stinking fish. Ag, saponaceus, too, 
was offered to our scrutiny, but pronounced, after deliberation, to savour more of 
fish-oil than of soap; and the interest displayed in Dr. Chapman’s fine group of 
Gloiocephalus was to a certain extent qualified by its exceedingly repulsive smell. 
Occasionally in the course of the forays one lighted on a family of fungi, such as 
Agaricus mucidus, the associations of which are more with the touch than the 
sight or smell. Unpleasantly slimy, it arrested the notice of the Woolhopians by 
its profusion at a certain point in Stoke Edith woods, both on the ground roots 
and on the tall, fine-grown beeches, which are its home. The mention of these 
silvan beauties suggests another element of interest in fungus-hunting—namely, 
the introduction it gives one to the finest timber in our land. As we have said, 
the fungi love the greenwood. And if, in the recent excursions around Hereford, 
the curious in such matters were too late by a couple of centuries to see at Stoke 
Edith the Elizabethan house of many gables, long since superseded by the present 
stately quadrangular mansion, or at Garnstone the original and characteristic 
mansion as appeared in 1675, and was represented in Dingley’s sketch, known 
to readers of the Camden Society’s publications, in the place of which is a castel- 
lated mansion built by Nash, yet in each case they might have made acquaintance 
with giant oaks and stately elms which perchance have been the silent witnesses 
of changes yet earlier than these; oaks and elms still betraying no traces of 
decrepitude, and still, as of old, giving grace, dignity, and picturesqueness to the 
landscape. It is not every day that one sees anything so perfect in its way as the 
great hall at Stoke Edith, the walls and ceilings of which were painted by Sir 
James Thornhill, or as the geometric flower garden designed by Nesfield; and 
yet an explorer might be still better employed in threading the paths of the richly- 
timbered deer-park and making his way to the broad and lofty ridge of Seagar 
